Name |
Life |
Known for |
Relationship to Harvard
|
Bülent Ecevit
|
1925–2006
|
Turkish politician, statesman, poet, writer, scholar, and journalist, who served as the Prime Minister of Turkey
|
Attended Harvard University with a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship Scholarship in 1957, studying social psychology and Middle East history for eight months. He attended lectures on anti-communism with Olof Palme and Bertrand Russell and attended Henry Kissinger's Harvard International Seminar.[1]
|
John Adams II |
1803–1834 |
aide to his father President John Quincy Adams |
Attended College; expelled prior to 1823 graduation; later among those designated as "Bachelor of Arts as of 1823" and admitted to Roll of Graduates
|
Vincent Astor |
1891–1959 |
businessman and philanthropist |
Attended College
|
F. Lee Bailey |
1933–2021 |
lawyer |
Attended College
|
William J. A. Bailey |
1884–1949 |
Radithor scandal |
Attended College
|
Andrew Beyer |
born 1943 |
horse racing expert |
Attended College
|
James Blake |
born 1979 |
tennis player |
Attended College in 1997–1999
|
Rick Brewer |
born 1956 |
president of Louisiana College in Pineville, Louisiana; former administrator at Charleston Southern University in North Charleston, South Carolina |
Post-graduate study at Harvard
|
William Starling Burgess |
1878–1947 |
aviator, yacht designer, automotive innovator, poet |
Attended Harvard College 1897–1900
|
Frederik X of Denmark |
born 1968 |
King of Denmark since 2024 |
Spent the 1992–1993 academic year at Harvard, studied political science under the name Frederik Henriksen
|
Frank Carlucci |
1930–2018 |
United States Secretary of Defense |
Attended Business School
|
Alistair Cooke |
1908–2004 |
journalist, broadcaster |
Visiting graduate student
|
Hamilton Coolidge |
1895–1918 |
soldier |
Attended College 1916 but dropped out to fight in World War I (killed in action); posthumously awarded an A.B. (War Degree), Harvard Class of 1919
|
Broderick Crawford |
1911–1986 |
actor |
Attended college after high school graduation but dropped out after three weeks
|
Vincent Cronin |
1924–2011 |
historian, writer |
Attended College
|
Matt Damon |
born 1970 |
actor |
Attended College
|
Eli Dershwitz |
born 1995 |
2023 World Saber Champion, 2015 Under-20 World Saber Champion, and US Olympic saber fencer |
Attending College
|
Paul Douglas |
1892–1976 |
United States Senator |
Attended Graduate School
|
Edmund Fanning |
1739–1818 |
British Colonial Officer and Governor |
Given A.M. Degree in 1764
|
John F. Fitzgerald |
1863–1950 |
mayor of Boston, Massachusetts |
Attended Harvard Medical School but dropped out in 1885 after father died
|
John Gould Fletcher |
1886–1950 |
poet and philosopher |
College (attended 1903–1907, but did not finish)
|
Benjamin Franklin |
1706–1790 |
scientist |
Never attended College; awarded an honorary degree in 1753 as Class of 1724
|
Robert Frost |
1874–1963 |
poet |
Attended College (1897–1899); awarded an honorary degree in 1937
|
Buckminster Fuller |
1895–1983 |
designer, architect |
Attended College
|
William Gaddis |
1922–1998 |
novelist |
Attended College
|
Bill Gates |
born 1955 |
co-founder and chairman of Microsoft, entrepreneur, and philanthropist |
Attended College (1973–1975); awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws in 2007
|
Frank Gehry |
born 1929 |
architect |
Attended Design School
|
Ruth Bader Ginsburg |
1933–2020 |
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States |
Attended Law School, later transferred to Columbia
|
James Halperin |
born 1952 |
co-founder and chairman of Heritage Auctions, entrepreneur, and author |
Attended College (1970–1972)
|
S. Herbert Hare |
1888-1960 |
landscape architect, co-founder of Hare & Hare |
Attended Design School
|
William Randolph Hearst |
1863–1951 |
newspaper magnate |
Attended College
|
Bruce Henderson |
1915–1992 |
founder of the Boston Consulting Group |
Attended the Business School
|
Joel Iacoomes |
1644–1665 |
Native American student (Wampanoag) |
Attended Harvard's Indian College; died in shipwreck at Nantucket before receiving his degree as Class of 1665; awarded a posthumous degree A.B. in 2011[2][3]
|
Henry James |
1843–1916 |
novelist |
Attended Law School
|
Philip Kaufman |
born 1936 |
film director, screenwriter |
Attended Law School
|
John Key |
born 1961 |
Prime Minister of New Zealand |
Attended professional courses at the Business School
|
Dan Kiley |
1912–2004 |
landscape architect, architect |
Attended Design School
|
Edwin Land |
1909–1991 |
inventor |
Attended College; awarded honorary doctorate in 1957
|
William Harrington Leahy |
1904-1986 |
rear admiral in the United States Navy, son of fleet admiral William D. Leahy |
Attended Business School[4]
|
Fred A. Leuchter |
born 1943 |
inventor and execution equipment designer |
Attended for post-graduate studies
|
Alan Lomax |
1915–2002 |
musicologist |
Attended College (1932–1933)
|
John Lomax |
1867–1948 |
musicologist |
Visiting student (1907)
|
Amory Lovins |
born 1947 |
environmentalist |
Attended College (1964–66)
|
Robert Lowell |
1917–1977 |
poet |
Attended College
|
James MacArthur |
1937–2010 |
actor |
Attended Harvard; dropped out in second year to become actor
|
Rosario Marin |
born 1958 |
Treasurer of the United States |
Attended KSG Program for State and Local Government Executives
|
Tshilidzi Marwala |
born 1971 |
academic, community leader, and businessman |
Attended Harvard Business School
|
Dustin Moskovitz |
born 1984 |
co-founder of Facebook, Inc. |
Attended College
|
Ogden Nash |
1902–1971 |
poet |
Attended College (1920–21)
|
Benjamin Netanyahu |
born 1949 |
Prime Minister of Israel |
Attended College; studied political science
|
Gabe Newell |
born 1962 |
co-founder of Valve |
Attended College[5]
|
Eugene O'Neill |
1888–1953 |
playwright |
Attended College
|
James Park |
born 1976 |
co-founder and CEO of Fitbit |
Attended College
|
Gram Parsons |
1946–1973 |
father of country rock |
Attended College
|
James Peck |
1914–1993 |
civil rights and anti-war activist |
Attended College
|
Ion Perdicaris |
1840–1925 |
businessman and philanthropist |
Attended College but left in second year
|
Mary Peters |
born 1948 |
United States Secretary of Transportation |
Attended KSG Program for State and Local Government Executives
|
Albert Pike |
1809–1891 |
Confederate General |
Attended but then chose not to attend college because of fees
|
Cole Porter |
1891–1964 |
composer |
Attended Law and Graduate Schools
|
David Endicott Putnam |
1898–1918 |
Soldier |
Attended College 1917 but dropped out to fight in World War I {killed in action}; posthumously awarded an S.B. {War Degree} Harvard Class of 1920}
|
Bonnie Raitt |
born 1949 |
singer, songwriter |
Attended Radcliffe
|
Richard Read |
born 1957 |
two-time Pulitzer Prize winner |
Nieman fellow (1996–97)
|
Eden Riegel |
born 1981 |
actress |
Attended College (1998–2000)
|
Laurance Spelman Rockefeller |
1910–2004 |
businessman and philanthropist |
Attended College but dropped out when he decided not to be a lawyer
|
Quentin Roosevelt |
1897–1918 |
soldier |
Attended College 1916 but dropped out to fight in World War I (killed in action); posthumously awarded an A.B. (War Degree), Harvard Class of 1919
|
Pete Seeger |
1919–2014 |
songwriter, singer, activist |
Attended College
|
Birendra Bir Bikram Shah |
1945–2001 |
late King of Nepal |
Attended for one year (1967–1968)
|
Robert Gould Shaw |
1837–1863 |
abolitionist, Union Army colonel |
Attended College (1856–1859); killed in American Civil War
|
Harry Shearer |
born 1943 |
actor, writer |
Attended Graduate School
|
Wallace Stevens |
1879–1955 |
poet |
Special student (1897–1900)
|
Adlai Stevenson |
1900–1965 |
1952 and 1956 Democratic U.S. presidential nominee, Governor of Illinois |
Attended Law School
|
Jonathan Taylor Thomas |
born 1981 |
actor |
Attended College (2001–2002)
|
Daniel Cosío Villegas |
1898–1976 |
economist, historian |
Student
|
David Foster Wallace |
1962–2008 |
writer |
Attended graduate school
|
David Kenyon Webster |
1922–1961 |
soldier, journalist, and author; was profiled in Band of Brothers |
Attended College one semester; dropped out to fight in WWII
|
John Wentworth |
1815–1888 |
Mayor of Chicago |
Attended Law School in 1841
|
Marjorie Williams |
1958–2005 |
writer |
Dropped out after junior year[6]
|
Charles W. Woodworth |
1865–1940 |
entomologist |
Studied under Hermann August Hagen 1886 to 1888, 1900–1901
|
Isoroku Yamamoto |
1884–1943 |
World War II Naval Marshal General, Imperial Japanese Navy |
Visiting student (1919–1921)
|
Mark Zuckerberg |
born 1984 |
founder & CEO of Facebook |
Left College in his second year
|