List of Washington College alumni

Washington College is a private liberal arts college in Chestertown, Maryland, which is on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The college was founded in 1782 by William Smith, but is the successor institution to the earlier Kent County Free School which was founded in 1732.^[1] Modern college classes – freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior – were introduced in the 1870s by President William Rivers.^[2] At the same time, a class called sub-freshmen was created for students that did not meet the requirements to be freshmen. The college continued to admit sub-freshmen to the preparatory department until 1924.^[3]

The class of 1927 sitting in front of William Smith Hall

Washington College experienced major fires in 1827^[4] and 1916^[5] that destroyed most of the school's records. Because of this, it is impossible to know how many students graduated before 1916 and which years people graduated.^[5] However, it is known that 218 students graduated between 1845 and 1903^[6] and, that in 1910, the college had 113 students enrolled.^[7] The college has continued to grow since then. In 1952, the college more than doubled its enrollment to 350 students.^[8] Between the 1950s and 1970s, the college doubled its enrollment again to 800 students in 1972. Since the 1970s, the college has close to doubled the 1972 enrollment with 1,480 students enrolled in 2019.^[9]

Alumni of Washington College includes two Governors of Maryland, a Governor of Delaware, four United States Senators, seven members of the United States House of Representatives, and nine State senators. Outside of the world of politics, nine alumni of Washington College played at least one game in Major League Baseball including Jake Flowers who was on two World Series winning teams. John Emory, the namesake of Emory University and Emory & Henry College, graduated from Washington College. Several alumni were successful writers including James M. Cain and Đỗ Nguyên Mai. Mary Adele France, who was the first president of St. Mary's College of Maryland, and Robert K. Crane, who discovered sodium-glucose cotransport, both found success in academia. H. Lawrence Culp Jr. has found success in business as the CEO of Danaher Corporation and the CEO of General Electric.

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.

• A "?" indicates that the year of graduation is unknown.
• "A "‡" indicates the final year that a non-graduating alumnus attended the college.
• An "M" indicates a Master's alumnus.

Arts and entertainment

James M. Cain

Linda Hamilton

Washington College alumni who are notable for their contributions to the arts or as entertainers

Name	Class year[a]	Notability	Ref(s)
James M. Cain	1910	Writer of The Postman Always Rings Twice, Double Indemnity and Mildred Pierce	[10]
Linda Hamilton	1978‡	Actress who portrayed Sarah Connor in The Terminator	[11]
Laura San Giacomo	1983‡	Actress who portrayed Cynthia Patrice Bishop in Sex, Lies, and Videotape and Maya Gallo in Just Shoot Me!	[12][13]
Erin Murphy	1990	Poet	[14]
Geoffrey Girard	1990	Writer	[15]
Vicco von Voss	1991	Woodworking Craftsman and Artist	[16]
Raph Koster	1992	Game designer, Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies, author of A Theory of Fun for Game Design	[17]
Deborah Anzinger	2001	Visual artist	[18]
Frank Giampietro	2002 M	Poet	[19]
Đỗ Nguyên Mai	2019	Poet	[20]

Athletics

D'Arcy "Jake" Flowers

Bill Nicholson

Washington College alumni who are notable for their contributions to sports or athletics

Name	Class year[a]	Notability	Ref(s)
Al Burris	1894	Pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies	[21]
Dave Zearfoss	?[b]	Catcher for the New York Giants and St. Louis Cardinals	[22]
Homer Smoot	1897[c]	Center fielder for the St. Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds	[23]
John "Happy" Townsend	?[d]	Pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies, Washington Senators, and Cleveland Naps	[24]
Ralph "Pepe" Young	?[e]	Second baseman for the New York Yankees, Detroit Tigers, and Philadelphia Athletics	[25]
Frederick "Doc" Wallace	?[f]	Shortstop for the Philadelphia Phillies	[26]
D'Arcy "Jake" Flowers	?[g]	Second baseman and shortstop for the St. Louis Cardinals, Brooklyn Dodgers and Cincinnati Reds	[27]
Bill Nicholson	1936	Right fielder for the Philadelphia Athletics, Chicago Cubs and Philadelphia Phillies	[28]
John Howard	1956	Head coach of Maryland Terrapins men's lacrosse and Professor of English	[29]
Dave Leonhard	1960‡	Pitcher for the Baltimore Orioles	[30]

Law and government

James Barroll Ricaud

Charles Hopper Gibson

Lucy Gwynne Branham

Barry Glassman

Washington College alumni who are notable for their contributions to law or politics

Name	Class year[a]	Notability	Ref(s)
Robert Wright	?[h]	United States Senator for Maryland (1801–1806), 12th Governor of Maryland, and U.S. Representative for Maryland's 7th congressional district (1810–1817; 1821–1823)	[31]
Thomas Veazey	1795	24th Governor of Maryland	[32]
Ezekiel F. Chambers	1805	United States Senator (1826–1834)	[33]
James Barroll Ricaud	1828	U.S. Representative for Maryland's 2nd congressional district (1855–1859)	[34]
John W. Crisfield	?[i]	U.S. Representative for Maryland's 6th congressional district (1847–1849) and Maryland's 1st congressional district (1861–1864)	[35]
George Vickers	?[j]	United States Senator for Maryland (1868–1873)	[36][37]
Joseph A. Wickes	?‡[k]	Member of the Maryland House of Delegates (1856) and judge on the Maryland Second Circuit	[38]
James Alfred Pearce	?‡[l]	Judge on the Maryland Court of Appeals	[39]
Charles Hopper Gibson	?[m]	U.S. Representative for Maryland's 1st congressional district (1885–1891) and United States Senator for Maryland (1891–1897)	[40]
Robert Franklin Brattan	1864	President of the Maryland Senate and U.S. Representative for Maryland's 1st congressional district (1893–1894)	[41]
Isaac Freeman Rasin	?[n]	Baltimore political boss	[42]
William T. Watson	?[o]	Speaker of the Delaware Senate and 49th Governor of Delaware	[43]
Thomas Alan Goldsborough	1899	U.S. Representative for Maryland's 1st congressional district (1921–1939) and United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia	[44][45]
Dudley Roe	1903	Maryland State Senator (1923–1935; 1939–1943) and U.S. Representative for Maryland's 1st congressional district (1945–1947)	[46]
Lucy Gwynne Branham	?[p]	Suffragette and Carnegie Medal awardee	[47]
Margaret Jefferson Jackson	1929	Maryland State Senator (1953–1955)	[48]
Robert P. Dean	1931	Maryland State Senator (1955–1971)	[49]
Louis L. Goldstein	1935	Maryland State Senator (1947–1958) and Comptroller of Maryland (1959–1998)	[50]
Joseph J. Longobardi	1952	Judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware	[51]
Thomas Hunter Lowe	1952	Speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates and judge on the Maryland Court of Special Appeals	[52]
Rose Mary Hatem Bonsack	1955	Member of the Maryland House of Delegates (1991–1999)	[53]
Walter M. Baker	1960	Maryland State Senator (1979–2003)	[54]
John Overington	1962	Speaker pro tempore of the West Virginia House of Delegates	[55]
Barbara Osborn Kreamer	1970	Member of the Maryland House of Delegates (1983–1991)	[56]
Dean Skelos	1970	New York State Senator (1985–2015) and felon	[57][58][59]
Joseph M. Getty	1974	Maryland State Senator (2011–2015) and judge on the Maryland Court of Appeals	[60]
Barry Glassman	1984	Maryland State Senator (2011–2015) and Harford County County Executive	[61]
Jerry Davis	1995	Member of the Houston City Council (2012–2020)	[62]

Other

Gilbert T. Rude

Robert K. Crane

Washington College alumni who are notable for their contributions to other fields

Name	Class year[a]	Notability	Ref(s)
William Murray Stone	1799	Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland	[63]
John Emory	1805	Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church	[64]
Edward F. C. Davis	1866	President of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers	[65]
Mary Adele France	1900	First president of St Mary's College of Maryland	[66]
Joseph Wilson Sutton	1900; 1904 M	Episcopal priest	[67]
Gilbert T. Rude	?[q]	United States Coast and Geodetic Survey and United States Navy Captain	[68]
William J. Wallace	1917	US Marine Corps Lieutenant general	[69]
Joseph McLain	1937	Pyrotechnic chemist and president of Washington College	[70]
Benjamin H. Vandervoort	1938	US Army colonel who was twice awarded the Distinguished Service Cross	[71]
William O. Baker	1935	President of Bell Labs (1973–1979)	[72]
Robert K. Crane	1942	Biochemist who discovered sodium-glucose cotransport	[73]
Ralph Snyderman	1961	Chancellor for health affairs and dean of the School of Medicine at Duke University	[74]
Jeannie Baliles	1962	First Lady of Virginia and founder of Virginia Literacy Foundation	[75]
Marcia A. Invernizzi	1972	Professor at the University of Virginia School of Education and Human Development	[76]
Jane E. Mitchell	1976 M	Nurse and civil rights activist	[77]
Stephan Lewandowsky	1980	Professor of Psychology at the University of Bristol	[78]
Kenneth M. Merz Jr.	1981	Biochemist and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling	[79]
H. Lawrence Culp Jr.	1985	CEO of GE Aerospace and CEO of Danaher Corporation	[80]
Harris Whitbeck	1987	Correspondent for CNN International	[81]
James A. Adkins	1991 M	28th Adjutant General of Maryland	[82]