List of Pomona College people

Pomona College is an elite private liberal arts college in Claremont, California, and the founding member of the Claremont Colleges consortium. Many notable individuals have been affiliated with the college as graduates, non-graduating attendees, faculty, staff, or administrators.
Since its founding in 1887, Pomona has graduated classes of students. The college enrolls approximately students as of the semester and has roughly 25,000 living alumni. The top industries for graduates include technology; education; consulting and professional services; finance; government, law, and politics; arts, entertainment, and media; healthcare and social services; nonprofits; and research.
Pomona employs faculty members as of the semester. The college has had presidents, the first four of whom were Congregational ministers. The current president,, took office in.

Notable alumni

Arts and letters

Visual art

Name	Class year	Notability
	1934	California Scene Painting watercolor artist
	1948	Landscape painter
	1951	Artist, known for minimalist and process art works
	1953	Performance artist
	1956	Light and Space artist
	1956	Artist, art historian, fellow of the Center for Advanced Visual Studies, known for steam sculpture
	1956	Painter
	1958	Sculptor, known for kinaesthetic sculptures, Governor General's Award in Visual Art recipient, Guggenheim Fellowship recipient
	1959	Artist, professor emeritus at the School of Art, Art History, and Design University of Washington
	1960s	Illustrator, best known for her work on the U.S. editions of the Harry Potter books
	1965	Light and Space artist, known for skyspaces and Roden Crater land art project
	1966	Photographer and video artist
	1969	Performance, sculpture, and installation artist
	1972	Sculptor, educator
	1973	Sculptor
	1977	Sculptor
	1999	Asian-American visual artist and arts administrator, artist-in-residence at Recology, Asian Cultural Council Individual Fellowship, artist-in-residence at de Young Museum, Artadia Awards recipient
	2002	Director and photographer
	2006	Writer, educator, and artist, Guggenheim Fellowship recipient, Creative Capital recipient
	2007	Chinese-American multidisciplinary artist
	2014	Multidisciplinary artist

Film and television

Name	Class year	Notability
	1928	Film actor
	1930s	Early computer animation filmmaker
	1933	Film actor
	Attended 1939–1943	Stop-motion clay animator and creator of Gumby
	Attended	Actress
	1956	Film and theatre actor, three-time Golden Globe winner
	1956	Academy Award–winning screenwriter
	1958	Emmy-winning character actor
	1967	Film director and Academy Award–winning screenwriter
	1970	Visual effects artist
	1971	Actor, husband of actress Wendy Phillips
	1972	Film and television producer
	1976	Two-time Tony Award–winning play director, playwright and film director
	1977	Emmy Award–winning casting director
	1978	Actress
	1979	Media mogul and film producer
	1979	Television writer
	1983	Television writer and producer
	1984	Academy Award–winning screenwriter ; frequent writing partner of Alexander Payne
	1991	Actor, wife of comedian Will Ferrell
	1991	Television actor
	1996	Television producer, director, screenwriter, author of Emerald Atlas and The Books of Beginning children's novel series
	1996	Filmmaker
	1998	Film director
Nava Mau	2014	Emmy-nominated actress

Music

Name	Class year	Notability
	Attended 1928–1930	Avant-garde composer, musician, and poet
	1935	Composer of electronic music
	1938	Fourteen-time Grammy-winning conductor
	Transferred 1952	Grammy-winning record label executive and producer
	1955	Norwegian publisher and chairman of Schibsted
	1958	Writer, singer-songwriter, actor, and musician
	1959	Composer and music scholar
	Auditor,	Prolific musician, member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
	1965	Soprano
	1968	Composer
	1977	Jazz musician
	1980	Conductor, former director of Chanticleer
	1988	Musician, The Oblivians; owner of Goner Records
	Attended 1990s	American-born Taiwanese singer and actress
	1999	Musician, We Are Scientists
	2000	Musician, We Are Scientists
	2004	Record label executive, CEO of Def Jam Recordings and co-founder of Keep Cool Records

Journalism and non-fiction writing

Name	Class year	Notability
	1929	Two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist for the Associated Press
	1933	Foreign affairs correspondent for the Toronto Star
	1947	Cultural and literary historian, known for criticism of the romanticization of war
	1953	Historian of Scandinavian history
	1958	CBS News correspondent
	1967	Television journalist
	1970	Executive editor of The New York Times and winner of the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting
	1974	Author, editor, and academic, known for his writings on rural America
	1974	NPR science correspondent
	1975	Columnist for the Chicago Tribune and winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary
	1979	Automotive technology writer
	1984	Reporter for The New York Times
	1992	Bangladeshi journalist and editor of the Dhaka Tribune
	2000	Journalist, lawyer, and political staffer; founder of ThinkProgress
	2000	Technology and business journalist, author
	2002	Staff writer for The Atlantic, known for civil libertarian perspectives
	2014	Mini crossword creator and editor for The New York Times

Other

Name	Class year	Notability
	Preparatory school, transferred 1901	Chinese educator and publicist, Pomona's first Asian student, English department editor of The Commercial Press
	1905	First state librarian of Louisiana and president of the American Library Association
	1927	Librarian who opposed Japanese internment during World War II and supported children sent to camps
	1938	Alaskan architect
	Transferred in 1956	Writer and comedian best known as a member of the Firesign Theatre
	Transferred in 1960	Emmy and Tony award-winning dancer and choreographer
	Attended 1970–1972	Author, spiritual leader, activist, and 2020 presidential candidate
	1974	Video game designer and producer
	1980	Video game designer and producer
	1988	Owner and operator of the Vanguard News Network, an antisemitic, white supremacist website

Government and law

U.S. senators and congresspeople

Name	Class year	Notability
	Transferred 1933	Democratic U.S. senator for California
	Attended 1941–1943	Democratic U.S. representative for Colorado's 3rd district
	1963	Republican U.S. representative for California's 17th district
	1994	Democratic U.S. senator for Hawaii

Judges

Name	Class year	Notability
	1924	Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
	Attended 1947–1950	Judge, United States District Court for the Central District of California, known for reforming treatment of alcoholism
	1951	Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
	1953	First Latino on the California Supreme Court, advocate for civil rights of farm workers; awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2000
	1969	Judge, United States District Court for the Central District of California
	1972	Judge, United States District Court for the Central District of California
	1977	Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
	1981	Judge, United States District Court for the Eastern District of California
	1988	Judge, United States District Court for the Central District of California
	1994	Judge, California Court of Appeal for the Second District; first Muslim judge in the state of California
	1994	Judge, United States District Court for the Northern District of California; first Korean-American judge appointed to Alameda County Superior Court

Activists

Name	Class year	Notability
	1935	Transgender rights activist and founder of Transvestia magazine
	1965	Activist, policy expert and founder of the Guttmacher Institute, brought Plan B to market
	1968	Activist, first full-time chairperson of the NAACP
	1973	Civil rights attorney and president of NAACP Legal Defense Fund
	1975	Founder and director of WomenStrong International, lecturer at Columbia University, Guggenheim Fellowship recipient
	1990	Activist, Rhodes Scholar, Truman Scholar, founder and president of the Human Trafficking Legal Center
	1993	Nonprofit executive, activist, and civic leader
	1999	Activist, nonprofit executive, and founder of Vote.org

Military

Name	Class year	Notability
	1937	Brigadier general, member of the Flying Tigers during World War II and Medal of Honor recipient
	1937	U.S. Secretary of the Air Force, 1981–1985

Business

Name	Class year	Notability
	1900	Citrus farmer, founder of Pitzer College
	1905	Lawyer, naval officer, oil drilling executive, and philanthropist; first president of the Associated Students of Pomona College
	1929	Businessperson and philanthropist, known for donations to Claremont McKenna College
	1932	Inventor of modern stickers, founder of Avery Adhesives
	1933	Aerospace and marine engineer and executive at the Douglas Aircraft Company and the Lockheed Missiles and Space Company
	1943	Chair of the board of the E. W. Scripps Company
	1946	Oil drilling executive and philanthropist
	1951	Executive at The Walt Disney Company; nephew of Walt Disney
	1952	President of The Walt Disney Company and mountaineer
	Transferred 1959	Computer architect, co-founder of Cray, and Microsoft Fellow
	1973	CEO of Alvarado Construction; co-owner of the Colorado Rockies
	1975	Winemaker
	1976	Indonesian entrepreneur and brother of former Indonesian presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto
	1976	CEO of E.L. Rothschild
	1983	Philanthropist, president and on board of directors of the Center Theatre Group
	1985	Philanthropist, president of the Samuel Bronfman Foundation
	1988	Convenor of the Hong Kong Executive Council and president of Asia Financial Holdings
	1991	Venture capitalist, CEO and founder of Hamsa
	1992	Billionaire founder of biotech firm Samumed
	1993	Former senior vice president, People Operations, Google, and co-founder and CEO of Humu
	1998	Billionaire co-founder and chief technology officer of Juul
	2000	Taiwanese American co-founder and CEO of Embrace Global
	2005	President and co-founder of College Hunks Hauling Junk
	2012	Founder of Ingressive, named on Forbes Africas "30 Under 30" list in 2018

Science

Name	Class year	Notability
	Attended 1900s	Desert ecologist
	Attended 1910–1911	Agricultural explorer, influential in bringing the avocado to North America
	1921	Seismologist, known for work charting deep ocean earthquakes
	1926	Physicist, co-inventor of the cyclotron
	1929	Physicist, director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory 1945–1970
	1929	Oceanographer, one of the first scientists to study global warming, and primary founder of the University of California, San Diego
	1942	Chinese petrochemist who researched catalysts used in petroleum processing
	1944	Physical chemist, known for work in surface science and nuclear non-proliferation advocacy
	1948	Conservationist and creator of the Bengal cat breed
	1949	Inorganic chemist, known for work on clusters of boron hydrides; National Medal of Science recipient
	1954	Physicist, director of the National Science Foundation
	1955	Computer scientist, known for pioneering work on time-sharing
	1961	Archeoastronomer, science educator, and director of the Griffith Observatory
	1964	Cell biologist and biophysicist
	1967	Biochemist, geneticist, and science educator
	1969	Physical chemist
	1970	Biochemist
	1972	Biochemist, known for work on nerve growth factor
	1977	Geriatrician, known for work on delirium
	1977	Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, American Astronomer, Emeritus Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of St Andrews, known for discovery of Qatar-1b, recipient of the Herschel Medal
	1980	Behavioral epidemiologist and science administrator
	1982	Medical geneticist; founder and CEO of Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc.
	1985	Biochemist, known for pioneering work in CRISPR gene editing; won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
	1986	Neuroscientist, president of Baycrest Academy for Research and Education
	1991	Biological anthropologist
	1992	Polymer physicist
	1995	Director of the Gladstone Institute, professor of Epidemiology and Biostatisics at the University of California, San Francisco, Chan Zuckerberg Biohub investigator, fellow of the California Academy of Sciences, fellow of the International Society for Computational Biology, fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
	2002	Chemist, Nicholas and Gelsa Pelick Family Chair in Science at Pennsylvania State University

Religion

Name	Class year	Notability
	1910	Clergyman and radio evangelist who founded the Fuller Theological Seminary
	1919	Minister, missionary, and anthropologist
	1956	Russian Orthodox hieromonk
	1977	Lutheran pastor and composer
	1985	Eighth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Northern California

Academia

College presidents

Name	Class year	Notability
	1894	Ninth president of the University of California, anthropologist, major general in the California National Guard, and first editor of The Student Life
	1956	Chancellor, University of Wisconsin–Green Bay and University of Alaska Anchorage
	1963	Fifth president of the Louisiana State University System
	1964	10th president of the College of Wooster and two-time U.S. badminton men's singles champion
	1969	17th president of Kalamazoo College
	1969	Rosalie Solow Professor of Modern Art at the New York University Institute of Fine Arts
	1983	20th president of Earlham College
	1985	16th president of Franklin College in Indiana
	1991	Dean of the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania

Professors and academics

Name	Class year	Notability
	1915	Lawyer, historian, and cartographer of the American West
	1920	Chinese sociologist considered a father of Chinese modern social science
	1945	Mathematician, founder of model theory
	1947	Psychologist who developed the Keirsey Temperament Sorter personality questionnaire
	1947	Professor and scientist, widely acknowledged as the father of automated essay scoring
	1962	Holocaust studies scholar, Claremont McKenna College
	1963	Alice Jane Drysdale Sheffield Regents Chair and Former Dean, University of Texas School of Law
	1964	Educational sociologist, associate vice chancellor for Extended Studies and Public Programs and professor of sociology at University of California, San Diego
	1965	Economist, university professor and provost emeritus at the University of Rochester
	1967	New Testament scholar, Buckingham Professor Emeritus of New Testament Criticism and Interpretation at Yale Divinity School
	1968	Biostatistician in Alzheimer's disease, professor emerita at University of California, Davis
	1969	Professor of Liberal Studies and Politics; faculty director of Creative Publishing & Critical Journalism at The New School; Guggenheim Fellow; editor of Daedalus; NEH fellow
	1969	Mathematics and Computer Science professor, Iowa State University
	1970	Mathematics professor, University of Texas at Austin
	1974	Historian of European architecture at the University of Notre Dame
	1975	Historian of science, emeritus professor at the University of Cambridge, director of the Darwin Correspondence Project
	1977	Chair of the Department of English at Ohio State University and literary critic who helped develop feminist narrative theory
	1981	International human rights scholar at University of California, Santa Barbara, fellow of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
	1982	Historian of fascism at Occidental College, Andrew W. Mellon Humanities professor at the American Academy in Rome
	1983	Cryptographer and professor of computer science at the University of California, Davis
	1984	Historian of early American history at Yale University
	1988	Historian of pre-20th-century American history at Stanford University
	1989	History professor at Trinity College in Connecticut
	1992	Neurobiology professor at Lewis & Clark College
	1992	Biostatistician at University of California, Los Angeles, fellow of the American Statistical Association
	1993	Art historian at Occidental College
	1995	Director of the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies; Eaton Professor of the Science of Government at Harvard University
	1996	Mathematician, co-director of the Alliance for Minority Participation
	2001	Mathematician, president of the National Association of Mathematicians
	2008	Biostatistician, senior data analyst at Stitch Fix, co-host of Not So Standard Deviations, data scientist for the 2020 Biden campaign

Athletics

Name	Class year	Notability
	1913	Pitcher for the New York Yankees
	1923	Olympic track and field athlete
	1925	Olympic hurdler and two-time national champion
	1925	Head football coach of the Sagehens from 1935 to 1958
	1942	Seven-time U.S. national badminton champion
	1947	Golfer, 1941 Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year
	1961	Grand Slam–winning tennis player
	1969	Olympic silver medalist swimmer, and former women's 400-meter freestyle world record holder
	1977	Long-distance swimmer and world record-holder for the fastest swim across the English Channel in 1978; later coached the Pomona women's swimming and diving team for more than 25 years
	1992	Head coach of the Atlanta Hawks, Milwaukee Bucks, and Phoenix Suns
	2007	Professional track and field athlete specializing in the 1500 meters
	2014	Racing driver
	2019	Professional basketball player in the Israeli National League

Presidents of Pomona College

From 1888 to 1890, trustee Charles B. Sumner was the college's "financial agent with supervisory authority", and assumed many of the duties of a president. The subsequent presidents are:

	Image	Name	Term start	Term end	Academic expertise
1		Cyrus G. Baldwin	1890	1897	Congregational minister
2		Franklin La Du Ferguson	1897	1901	Congregational minister
3		George A. Gates	1902	1909	Congregational minister
4		James A. Blaisdell	July 1, 1910	June 30, 1927	Congregational minister
5		Charles K. Edmunds	July 1, 1928	June 30, 1941	Physics
6		E. Wilson Lyon	July 1, 1941	June 30, 1969	History
7		David Alexander	July 1, 1969	June 30, 1991	Theology
8		Peter W. Stanley	July 1, 1991	June 30, 2003	History
9		David W. Oxtoby	July 1, 2003	June 30, 2017	Chemistry
10		G. Gabrielle Starr	July 1, 2017	present	Literature, neuroscience