Notable Alumni
William Pitt Fessenden, abolitionist, twenty-sixth US secretary of the treasury; US representative and US senator from Maine (1824)
Franklin Pierce, fourteenth president of the United States (1824)
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, poet (1825)
Nathaniel Hawthorne, novelist (1825)
John Brown Russwurm, abolitionist and publisher; third Black graduate of an American college (1826)
Oliver Otis Howard, Civil War general; recipient of the Medal of Honor; commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau; among the founders of Howard University (1850)
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, Civil War general; recipient of the Medal of Honor; thirty-second governor of Maine; sixth president of Bowdoin College (1852)
Melville Fuller, eighth chief justice of the US Supreme Court (1853)
Thomas Brackett Reed, thirty-second speaker of the US House of Representatives (1860)
Thomas W. Hyde, Civil War colonel; recipient of the Medal of Honor; author; founder of Bath Iron Works (1861)
Dr. Augustus Stinchfield, Mayo Clinic cofounder (1868)
Edwin Hall, physicist who discovered the Hall effect (1875)
Freelan Oscar Stanley, inventor of the Stanley Steamer and builder of the Stanley Hotel (1877)
Robert E. Peary, admiral and Arctic explorer (1877)
Hoyt Augustus Moore, presiding partner, Cravath, Swaine, and Moore (1895)
Sir Harry Oakes, gold mine owner, entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist (1896)
Donald B. MacMillan, admiral and Arctic explorer (1898)
Harvey Dow Gibson, business leader and president, Manufacturers Trust Company (1902)
Harold Hitz Burton, associate justice of the US Supreme Court; US Senator from Ohio; forty-fifth mayor of Cleveland, Ohio (1909)
Paul H. Douglas, US senator from Illinois; civil rights advocate known as "the conscience of the Senate" (1913)
Robert P. T. Coffin, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet (1915)
Dr. Alfred Kinsey, sex researcher (1916)
Hodding Carter, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist (1927)
Gary Merrill, film and television actor (1937)
Everett P. Pope, recipient of the Medal of Honor for conspicuous gallantry on Peleliu during World War II (1941)
Dr. H. Richard Hornberger, writer and surgeon; creator of M*A*S*H (1945)
Bernard Osher, businessman and philanthropist (1948)
Raymond S. Troubh, businessman and independent financial consultant (1950)
Peter Buck, physicist and philanthropist; cofounder of the Subway sandwich chain (1952)
Thomas R. Pickering, career ambassador; eighteenth US ambassador to the United Nations; former US ambassador to Jordan, Nigeria, El Salvador, Israel, India, and Russia; former undersecretary of state for political affairs (1953)
George J. Mitchell, US senator from Maine; majority leader of the US Senate; US special envoy for Northern Ireland; chair of Disney; special envoy for Middle East peace (1954)
Leon Gorman, president and chairman of the board of L.L. Bean (1956)
Donald M. Zuckert, chairman and CEO of Ted Bates Worldwide, Inc. (1956)
William Cohen, US senator and US representative from Maine; twentieth US secretary of defense; author (1962)
Michael M. Anello, senior US district judge for the Southern District of California (1965)
Berle M. Schiller, senior US district judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (1965)
Abelardo Morell, award-winning photographer (1971)
John A. Woodcock Jr., retired senior US district judge for the District of Maine (1972)
Kenneth Chenault, business executive; former American Express CEO (third African American CEO of a Fortune 500 company); chairman and managing director of General Catalyst Partners; member of the NCAA Board of Governors (1973)
Geoffrey Canada, educator and activist; former president and CEO of the Harlem Children's Zone (1974)
Alvin Hall, financial adviser, author, and media personality; cocreator of "Driving the Green Book" podcast (1974)
Christopher R. Hill, diplomat; former US ambassador to Macedonia, Poland, South Korea, and Iraq; twenty-fifth assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs; former dean of the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver (1974)
Ed Lee, first Asian American mayor of San Francisco (1974)
Sheldon M. Stone, Oaktree Capital Management founder and partner (1974)
Stanley Druckenmiller, investor and philanthropist (1975)
Lawrence B. Lindsey, economist, former governor of the Federal Reserve; fourth director of the National Economic Council (1975)
Cynthia McFadden, NBC News senior legal and investigative correspondent (1978)
John Studzinski, banker and philanthropist; managing director and vice chairman at PIMCO; former senior managing director of The Blackstone Group (1978)
Joan Benoit Samuelson, marathon runner, Olympic gold medalist (1979)
Andrew E. Serwer, Yahoo! Finance editor-in-chief; former managing editor of Fortune (1981)
Karen Mills-Francis, Miami-Dade County judge and television arbitrator known as "Judge Karen" (1982)
Reed Hastings, Netflix founder and CEO (1983)
Kary Antholis, HBO Academy Award-winning producer (1984)
Ruthie Davis, fashion designer and entrepreneur (1984)
Paul Adelstein, "Prison Break" and "Private Practice" actor (1991)
Paul D. Miller (aka DJ Spooky), composer, writer, and musician (1992)
Anthony Doerr, Pulitzer Prize-winning author (1995)
Katie Benner, New York Times Justice Department reporter (1999)
Claudia La Rocco, poet, critic, and performer (2000)
Jay Caspian Kang, writer and editor (2002)
Hari Kondabolu, comedian (2004)
DeRay Mckesson, civil rights activist and podcaster (2007)
Zohran Mamdani, New York State Assembly member (2014)