List of Oregon State University alumni

Note that the people listed may have only attended the university at some point and have not necessarily graduated.

Oregon State University is located in Corvallis, Oregon in the United States. It traces its roots to 1856, when Corvallis Academy was founded. It was not formally incorporated until 1858 when the name was changed to Corvallis College, and not chartered until 1868. In 1890 the school became known as Oregon Agricultural College, then in 1927 as Oregon State Agricultural College. Its current name was adopted in 1961. Alumni from each of these eras may be included on the list, and more than 200,000 people have attended the university since its founding.^[1]

Corvallis College's first graduating class was in 1870, and consisted of three people.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

Activism

Name	Attended	Notability	Reference
Bobby Henderson	1999–2003	Activist and creator of Pastafarianism	[2]
Bruce W. Klunder	?–1958	Civil rights activist and Presbyterian minister	[3]
Ada-Rhodes Short	?—2018	Transgender rights activist and mechatronic design engineer
Katherine Ann Power	?—2001	Anti-war activist, convicted of armed robbery and manslaughter who spent fourteen years on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list	[4]

Art and architecture

Name	Attended	Notability	Reference
John Clem Clarke		painter	[5]
Florence Holmes Gerke	1896-1964	Landscape architect of the International Rose Test Garden	[6]
Tala Madani	1999–2004	Artist, painter featured in the 2017 Whitney Biennial	[7]
Lee Arden Thomas		Architect who designed the OSU Memorial Union.
Roger A. Wreth	?–1980	Photographer 1980 Pulitzer Prize in Photography finalist	[1][8]

Business

Name	Attended	Notability	Reference
Thomas J. Autzen	1905–1909	Plywood manufacturing pioneer
Mercedes Alison Bates	?–1936	Former vice president of General Mills' Betty Crocker Cooking division; first female officer of General Mills	[1]
Austen S. Cargill II	?	Heir and major shareholder of Cargill, received a PhD from Oregon State University	[1]
Peggy Cherng	1969–1971	CEO of Panda Express	[9]
Randy Conrads	?–1972	Founder of Classmates.com	[10]
Jen-Hsun Huang	1980–1984	Co-founder and CEO of NVIDIA	[11][12]
Timothy S. Leatherman	?–1970	Inventor of the Leatherman tool	[13]
Brian McMenamin	?–1980	Co-founder of the McMenamins chain	[14]
Mike McMenamin	?–1974	Co-founder of the McMenamins chain	[14]
Bernie Newcomb	?–1965	Co-founder of E*TRADE	[1]
Hüsnü Özyeğin		Turkish billionaire businessman, philanthropist
Don Robert		CEO of Experian	[15]
Leonard Shoen		Founder of U-Haul	[16]
John A. Young	?–1953	Former president and CEO of Hewlett-Packard	[1]
Peter Gassner	1983–1989	Co-founder and CEO of Veeva Systems	[17]

Education

Name	Attended	Notability	Reference
Holly Barnard	?–2009	Professor of Geography at University of Colorado Boulder and founder of the Critical Zone Laboratory	[18]
Sara Harris		Climate scientist and 3M National Teaching Fellow at the University of British Columbia
Wayne L. Hubbell	?–1965	Jules Stein Professor of Ophthalmology at UCLA	[19]
Octave Levenspiel	?–1991	Emeritus Professor of chemical engineering at Oregon State University	[20]
Staci Simonich		Dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences at Oregon State University
Ann Streissguth		Endowed Professor Emeritus and Founding Director of the Fetal Alcohol Drug Unit at the University of Washington School of Medicine
Carrie Halsell Ward	1922–1926	College lecturer and first black student to graduate from OSU.	[21]
Michael Waterman	early 70s	Computational biologist; professor of biological science, mathematics, and computer science at the University of Southern California	[22]

Entertainment

Name	Attended	Notability	Reference
Trevor Bardette		actor
John Brotherton		Soap opera actor	[1]
George Bruns	?–1936	Composer	[1]
Meghna Chakrabarti	1994–1998	Journalist, radio producer, and host of the NPR program On Point
Pinto Colvig	?–1911	Voice actor; the original Bozo the Clown	[1]
Kevin Hagen		Actor
Harley Jessup	?–1976	1987 Best Visual Effects Oscar winner for the film Innerspace	[1]
Cathy Marshall		News anchor
Beau Mirchoff	?-2024	Actor	[23]
Roger Nichols		Recording Engineer for Steely Dan
Jodi Ann Paterson	?–1998	2000 Playboy Playmate of the Year and model	[24]
Meredith Phillips		Star of ABC reality television show The Bachelorette
Mike Rich		Screenwriter
Laurie Roth		Syndicated radio talk-show host
Travis Rush		Country music singer
Kendra Sunderland	?	Model and pornographic actress who was also expelled from the university because of public indecency.	[25]
Sara Jean Underwood	2002–2007	July 2006 Playboy Playmate of the Month, 2007 Playmate of the Year, actress, and model	[26]

Literature and journalism

Name	Attended	Notability	Reference
Chris Anderson	1968–1972	Two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize	[1]
Pamela Cytrynbaum		Journalist and restorative justice practitioner
Geffrey Davis		Poet
Webley Edwards	?–1927	World War II news correspondent	[1]
Christopher Howell		Poet
Chris Johns	1971-1974	Current Editor-In-Chief of National Geographic magazine
George Oppen		Poet and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
Mary Oppen		Poet
Bert Sperling	1968-1972	Author and researcher

Marion Eugene Carl

Anthony E. Van Dyke

Military

Name	Attended	Notability	Reference
Edward C. Allworth	?–1916	Recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor	[1]
Rex T. Barber	?–1940	World War II pilot credited with killing Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto	[1]
Marion Eugene Carl	?–1938	World War II flying ace; record-setting test pilot; United States Marine Corps (USMC) Major General	[1]
Elmer E. Hall		World War II Brigadier General, USMC
John Noble Holcomb	1967	Recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor	[1]
Ulysses G. McAlexander		Commander of Army ROTC. Earned the nickname "Rock of the Marne" during World War I.
Anthony E. Van Dyke	?–1978	USMC Colonel and current commander of Marine forces at Henderson Hall	[27]

Politics

Cecil D. Andrus

John Ensign

Douglas McKay

Name	Attended	Notability	Reference
Cecil D. Andrus	1952	Governor of Idaho (1971–1977, 1987–1995) and U.S. Secretary of the Interior (1977–1981)	[1]
Earl I. Anzai	?–1964	Attorney General of Hawaii (1999–2002)	[28]
Brad Avakian	?–1984	Commissioner of the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries (2008–2019 )	[29]
Rod Chandler	?–1968	U.S. Representative of Washington (1983–1993)	[30]
Charles Crookham	1941–1943	Attorney General of Oregon (1992–1993)	[31]
John Ensign	?–1981	U.S. Representative of Nevada (1995–1999); Nevada U.S. Senator (2001–2011)	[32]
John Hubert Hall	?–1923	Governor of Oregon (1947–1949); member of the Oregon House of Representatives (1936–1947)	[1]
Julia Butler Hansen	1924–1926	U.S. Representative of Washington (1960–1974)	[33]
Darlene Hooley	?–1961	U.S. Representative of Oregon (1997–2009)	[34]
Elaine Hopson	1960	Oregon state representative	[35]
Hector Macpherson, Jr.	1936–1940	Oregon State Senator (1971–1974)	[36]
Douglas McKay	?–1917	Governor of Oregon (1949–1952) and U.S. Secretary of the Interior (1953–1956)	[1]
Paul Peek	?–?	California Secretary of State (1940–1943); Speaker of the California State Assembly (1939)	[37]
Pou Sohtireak	?–1980s	Cambodian Minister for Industry, Mines and Energy	[38]
Norris Poulson	1923	U.S. Representative of California (1943–1945, 1947–1955); mayor of Los Angeles, California (1953–1961)	[39]
Frederick Steiwer	?–1902	Oregon U.S. Senator (1927–1937)	[40]
Lowell Stockman	?–1922	U.S. Representative of Oregon (1943–1953)	[41]
Jolene Unsoeld	1949–1951	U.S. Representative of Washington (1989–1995)	[42]
Robert M. Veatch	1868–1871	Oregon Representative (1883–1886), Senator (1887–1892), and mayor of Cottage Grove, Oregon	[43]
James K. Weatherford	1868–1872	Oregon Representative, Speaker of the House (1876), Senator, and mayor of Albany, Oregon	[44]
Mary Carlin Yates	?–1968	U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Burundi and U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Ghana	[1]
Irwandi Yusuf	1993	Governor of Indonesian province of Aceh	[45]

Religion

Bobby Henderson	?–2003	Activist and creator Pastafarianism	[2]
Katharine Jefferts Schori	?–1983	Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church and oceanographer	[46]

Linus Pauling

William Oefelein

Donald Pettit

Science and engineering

Name	Attended	Notability	Reference
Charity Dean		Epidemiologist, assistant director of the California Department of Public Health, and co-founder and CEO of The Public Health Company.
Paul H. Emmett	1917–1922	Manhattan Project research staff member and member of the United States National Academy of Sciences	[47]
Milton Harris	1924–1926	Founded the Harris Research Laboratories, which later merged with Gillette.	[48]
Donald M. Kerr	?–1969	Wildlife biologist and founder of the High Desert Museum	[49]
Ann Kiessling	?-1971	Reproductive biologist and leading stem cell researcher
Linus Pauling	1917–1922	1954 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and 1962 Nobel Peace Prize recipient	[1]
Glenn Odekirk	1923–1927	Hughes Aircraft Aerospace Engineer, helped design the H-4 Hercules	[50]
William Oefelein	?–1988	NASA astronaut	[51]
Donald Pettit	?–1978	NASA astronaut	[52]
Stephen O. Rice		Pioneer in the related fields of information theory, communications theory, and telecommunications
J. Michael Scott	?–1973	Ornithologist (research scientist), Peace Corps volunteer	[53]
Ernest H. Taves		Psychiatrist, author, and UFO skeptic
William Tebeau	1948	Chemical engineer and first African-American male graduate
Earl A. Thompson		Inventor of the manual transmission synchronizer in 1923 and leader of the team at General Motors Corporation that developed the first Hydramatic automatic transmission in 1940
Marta Torres		Marine geologist known for her work on the geochemistry of cold seeps and methane hydrates
Warren Washington	1954? - 1958	Atmospheric scientist
Omran Al Mazrouei	2010 - 2016	Senior Climate Change Negotiator, the twenty eighth session of the conference of parties (COP28, Dubai). Awarded UAE president Zayed II first order medal.

Sports

Main article: List of Oregon State University athletes

Technology

Name	Attended	Notability	Reference
Philip Emeagwali	1974–1977	1989 Gordon Bell Prize winner	[54]
Douglas Engelbart	?–1948	Inventor of the computer mouse and winner of the National Medal of Technology	[1]
Bobby Henderson	1999–2003	Activist and created Pastafarianism	[2]
Jensen Huang	1980–1984	Founder of Nvidia

See also

• List of Oregon State University athletes
• List of Oregon State University faculty and staff
• List of people from Oregon