List of Washburn University alumni

Arts and entertainment

• 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 29th Treasurer of the United States
• Bob Dole former U.S. Senator from Kansas, Republican candidate for President
• 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. Representatives from Kansas
• John F. Hayes Kansas House of Representatives
• Donald R. Heath U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia, Vietnam, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia
• Harold S. Herd Kansas State Senate, 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. House of Representatives 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, U.S. Department of State
• Warren W. Shaw Kansas State Representative ; Candidate for Kansas Governor ; member of the Washburn Athletic Hall of Fame
• Jim Slattery Kansas House of Representatives ; U.S. Representative from 2nd District of Kansas ; Candidate for Kansas Governor, Candidate for U.S. Senate
• Robert T. Stephan – Attorney General of Kansas, 1979–1995
• Robert Stone Speaker of the Kansas House of Representatives, Member of the Kansas House of Representatives
• Ron Thornburgh Kansas Secretary of State
• Togiola Tulafono Governor of American Samoa, 2004–present
• 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
• 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

  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
• 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