List of Washburn University alumni
The following is a list of notable people associated with Washburn University, located in Topeka, Kansas, United States.
Arts and entertainment
- Elizabeth Barr Arthur poet, author, journalist, librarian, police officer, suffragist
- Mary Huntoon artist, Federal Art Project state director, art therapist
- Bill Kurtis television journalist and producer
- Kerry Livgren, primary songwriter and founding member of progressive rock band Kansas
- Larry Niven science-fiction writer
- James Reynolds actor; portrays Capt. Abe Carver on the soap opera Days of Our Lives
- Bradbury Thompson graphic artist
Business
- Greg Brenneman chief executive officer, Quiznos; former chief executive officer, Burger King; former chief operating officer, Continental Airlines
- Rich Davis founder, Kansas City Masterpiece; former dean, University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences
- John F. Kilmartin Jr. former chairman and chief executive officer, Mervyns
- Ronald K. Richey president and chief executive officer, Torchmark Corporation
Government and politics
- Henry Justin Allen 21st Governor of Kansas
- Georgia Neese Clark Gray 29th Treasurer of the United States
- Don O. Concannon Chairman of the Kansas Republican Party from 1968 to 1970. Unsuccessful candidate for Governor in 1974
- Bob Dole former U.S. Senator from Kansas and Senate Majority Leader, Republican candidate for President of the United States
- John Edward Erickson Governor of Montana and U.S. Senator
- Joan Finney 42nd Governor of Kansas ; Kansas State Treasurer
- Arthur Fletcher chairman, National Black Chamber of Commerce; director, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights; executive director, United Negro College Fund
- Denver David Hargis U.S. Representative from Kansas
- John F. Hayes Kansas State Representative
- Donald R. Heath U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia, Vietnam, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia
- Harold S. Herd Kansas State Senator, Senate Minority Leader; Mayor of Coldwater, Kansas
- Delano Lewis former U.S. Ambassador to South Africa; former president, National Public Radio
- Charles D. McAtee Director of Kansas penal institutions during the last executions held in Kansas; candidate for Congress and attorney general
- John McCuish 34th Governor of Kansas
- Dennis Moore U.S. Representative from Overland Park
- Paul J. Morrison Kansas Attorney General, District Attorney of Johnson County, Kansas
- Howard B. Myers, Director, Division of Social Research, Works Progress Administration during FDR's New Deal
- Roger Noriega Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, United States Department of State
- Mike Padilla Mayor of Topeka, Kansas
- Warren W. Shaw Kansas State Representative ; candidate for Governor of Kansas ; member of the Washburn Athletic Hall of Fame
- Jim Slattery Kansas State Representative ; U.S. Representative from Kansas's 2nd congressional district ; candidate for Governor of Kansas, candidate for the U.S. Senate
- Robert T. Stephan – Attorney General of Kansas
- Robert Stone Speaker of the Kansas House of Representatives, Kansas State Representative
- Ron Thornburgh Kansas Secretary of State
- Togiola Tulafono Governor of American Samoa
- Douglas S. Wright Mayor of Topeka, Kansas
Journalism
- Arthur J. Carruth Jr. co-owner and editor, Topeka State Journal; chairman, Washburn Board of Regents; namesake of the university's Carruth Hall
- Reuben H. Markham missionary educator in Bulgaria; journalist for the Christian Science Monitor, author of numerous books
Law
- Sam A. Crow Senior Judge, United States District Court for the District of Kansas
- Lee A. Johnson Kansas Supreme Court Justice
- Tyler C. Lockett Kansas Supreme Court ; District court judge in Wichita ; Judge, common pleas court
- Marla Luckert Kansas Supreme Court Justice
- J. Thomas Marten District Judge, United States District Court for the District of Kansas
- Kay McFarland first female chief justice of the Kansas Supreme Court
- Eric F. Melgren District Judge, United States District Court for the District of Kansas
- Loren Miller Municipal Court Judge, County of Los Angeles, California
- Nancy Moritz Kansas Supreme Court Justice ; Judge for 10th Circuit Court of Appeals
- Joseph Wilson Morris senior partner, Gable & Gotwals ; general counsel of Shell Oil ; Chief Judge, Eastern District of Oklahoma ; Dean, University of Tulsa College of Law
- Paul J. Morrison former Attorney General for the State of Kansas
- Fred Phelps disbarred lawyer and pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church, known for its extreme views on homosexuality, Christianity, and American soldiers; he and the Westboro Baptist Church were the subject of a U.S. Supreme Court case, Snyder v. Phelps
- Shirley Phelps-Roper daughter of Fred Phelps; attorney and spokesperson for the Westboro Baptist Church
- Eric Rosen Kansas Supreme Court Justice
- Gordon Sloan former judge on the Oregon Supreme Court
- Robert Stone founder of Washburn Law School in 1903, Speaker of the Kansas House of Representatives
- Ozell Miller Trask appointed by President Richard Nixon as a Federal Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
Science and technology
- Karl Bowman former chief of psychiatry at Bellevue Hospital in New York; former director of the Langley Porter Psychiatric Clinic at the University of California, San Francisco, Superintendent of the Alaska Psychiatric Institute
- Lauren Drain nurse and author known for writing the 2013 book Banished, which chronicles her experiences and eventual banishment from the controversial Westboro Baptist Church
- Karl Menninger psychiatrist; co-founder, the Menninger Clinic
- Earl Wilbur Sutherland Jr. recipient, 1971 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- Robert Whittaker plant ecologist; known for first proposing the five kingdom taxonomic classification and Whittaker Biome Classification.
Military service
- Brigadier General Arthur S. Champeny only man in U.S. history to receive the Distinguished Service Cross in three separate conflicts: World War I, World War II and Korea
- Rear Admiral Stanley Thomas Counts commanded and during the Vietnam War
- Brigadier General Clarence T. "Curly" Edwinson flew 30 missions as a World War II fighter pilot; Commander, 42nd Air Division, U.S. Air Force; all conference halfback at Washburn
- Major General Kathleen E. Fick Director of Intelligence of the National Guard Bureau
- Brigadier General Howard S. Searle Assistant Division Commander, 35th Infantry Division
- Colonel Leroy W. Stutz U.S. Air Force pilot; shot down on his 85th mission in Vietnam; spent 2,284 days as a prisoner of war, including time at the "Hanoi Hilton"
Sports
- Ernest Bearg – WU football coach, Nebraska coach, Nebraska football Hall of Fame, Washburn Athletics Hall of Fame
- Kurt Budke – WU basketball and graduate assistant, head coach for Louisiana Tech and Oklahoma State women's programs
- Bob Davis – radio broadcaster for Kansas City Royals and Jayhawks football and men's basketball teams
- Morley Fraser – coach, Albion College, led school to 11 Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association championships
- Jim Holtgrieve – golfer, three-time Walker Cup champion
- Davey Lopes – former manager, Milwaukee Brewers baseball team; 16-year Major League Baseball career
- Ron McHenry – current women's basketball coach at Washburn
- Mike Racy – former NCAA vice president ; 5th commissioner of Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association
- Jerry Schemmel – radio voice of NBA's Denver Nuggets
- Troy Stedman – linebacker for Kansas City Chiefs
- Dave Wiemers – college football coach
- Cary Williams – NFL cornerback, Tennessee Titans, Baltimore Ravens, Philadelphia Eagles, Seattle Seahawks
- Gary Woodland — professional golfer on the PGA Tour, 2019 U.S. Open champion
- Corey Ballentine – NFL cornerback and return specialist for the New York Giants, New York Jets, Detroit Lions, and Green Bay Packers.