List of Philolexian Society members
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The Philolexian Society of Columbia University is one of the oldest college literary and debate societies in the United States. Following is a partial list of Philolexian Society members organized by area of notability.
Architecture and engineering
| Name | Class | Notability | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Julian Clarence Levi | 1894 | Architect | [1] |
| William Barclay Parsons | 1879 | Civil engineer and founder of Parsons Brinckerhoff | [2] |
Business
| Name | Class | Notability | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Horatio Allen | 1823 | President of Erie Railroad, civil engineer, and inventor | [3][4] |
| William Backhouse Astor Sr. | 1811 | Business magnate | [3][4] |
| William Backhouse Astor Jr. | 1849 | Businessman, racehorse owner and breeder, and yachtsman | [3][4] |
| Douglas Black | 1915 | President of Doubleday and Company | [2][5] |
| Stuyvesant Fish | 1871 | Illinois Central Railroad president | [6][7] |
| Robert Goelet | 1860 | Businessman and yachtsman | [3][8] |
| James Lenox | 1818 | President of the New York Chamber of Commerce, bibliophile, and philanthropist | [3][4] |
| Ward Melville | 1909 | Founding president of Thom McAn, Melville Corporation (CVS Health), and philanthropist behind Stony Brook University | [9] |
| John Lloyd Stephens | 1822 | Founder and vice president of the Panama Railroad Company, Special Ambassador to Central America, explorer, and author | [10][3] |
| John Aikman Stewart | 1840 | Banker | [11][3] |
| William R. Travers | 1838 | Businessman and first president of the Saratoga Race Course | [2][3] |
| Lawrence Wien | 1925 | Real instate investor and attorney who pioneered real estate syndicates | [2] |
Clergy
| Name | Class | Notability | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| George Washington Bethune | 1823 | Preacher-pastor in the Dutch Reformed Church | [12][3][4] |
| Jackson Kemper | 1809 | First missionary bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States | [3][4] |
| Thomas Merton | 1938 | Trappist monk, writer, theologian, and poet | [13][14] |
| James B. Nies | 1882 | Episcopal minister and Assyriologist | [15] |
| Benjamin T. Onderdonk | 1809 | Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York | [3][4] |
| Henry Onderdonk | 1805 | Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania | [10][3][4] |
| Marvin Vincent | 1854 | Presbyterian minister and professor | [16][4] |
Education
| Name | Class | Notability | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Charles Anthon | 1815 | Classical scholar and educator | [3][4] |
| Donald Barr | 1941 | Dalton School headmaster | [17] |
| Wm. Theodore de Bary | 1941 | East Asian scholar and Columbia University provost | [13][18] |
| Jacques Barzun | 1927 | Historian, provost, and University Professor at Columbia University | [19][20][21][8] |
| Robert Fulton Cutting | 1871 | President of Cooper Union, financier, and philanthropist | [4] |
| Dixon Ryan Fox | 1911 | Union College president | [22][23] |
| Mott T. Greene | 1967 | Historian of science and academic | [24] |
| Frank S. Hackett | 1899 | Educator, founder of Riverdale Country Day School, and pioneer in the Country Day School movement | [25] |
| Carl Hovde | 1950 | Columbia College Dean | [2] |
| James Hall Mason Knox | 1841 | Lafayette College president | [2][3] |
| Arthur MacMahon | 1912 | Political scientist and pioneer in the academic study of public administration | [23] |
| Robert Marshak | 1936 | City College of New York president | [2] |
| Brander Matthews | 1871 | Academic and literary critic | [6][7][4] |
| Parker Thomas Moon | 1913 | Political scientist and researcher on international peace | [26] |
| Nathaniel F. Moore | 1802 | President of Columbia College | [6][3][27][4] |
| Steven Raphael | 1963 | economist, professor of public policy at Goldman School of Public Policy, and adjunct fellow at Public Policy Institute of California | [24] |
| Edwin R. A. Seligman | 1878 | Economist and academic | [28] |
| William Milligan Sloane | 1868 | Historian, professor at Princeton University, and coach of the first U.S. Olympic team | [4] |
| Howard Spodek | 1963 | Professor of history and geography and urban studies at Temple University | [24] |
| Paul van K. Thomson | 1940 | Professor and vice president for academic affairs of Providence College, Catholic priest, and author | [29] |
| John Howard Van Amringe | 1860 | Mathematician and the first Dean of Columbia College | [3][4] |
| Eugene Victor Wolfenstein | 1962 | Social theorist, psychoanalyst, and a professor of political science at University of California, Los Angeles | [21] |
Entertainment
| Name | Class | Notability | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sidney Buchman | 1923 | Film producer and Oscar-winning screenwriter | [2] |
| I. A. L. Diamond | 1941 | Oscar-winning screenwriter | [2] |
| Bernard M. L. Ernst | 1905 | Magician and associate of Harry Houdini. | [30] |
| Orrin Keepnews | 1943 | Grammy-winning record producer | [8] |
| William Ludwig | 1932 | Oscar-winning screenwriter and co-founder of the Writers Guild of America | [2] |
| Robert C. Schnitzer | 1927 | Actor, producer, educator, and theater administrator | [31][19] |
| Ben Stein | 1966 | Actor, comedian, and commentator | [8] |
| Garth Stein | 1987 | Academy Award-winning film producer, screenwriter, and novelist | [2] |
| John La Touche | 1937 | Lyricist for Cabin in the Sky and The Golden Apple | [32] |
| Kenneth Webb | 1906 | Film director, screenwriter, and composer | [33] |
| Gideon Yago | 2000 | MTV personality | [2] |
Law
Literature and journalism
| Name | Class | Notability | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| James Warner Bellah | 1923 | Western writer | [43] |
| Elliott V. Bell | 1925 | BusinessWeek publisher, a financial writer for The New York Times, and New York State Superintendent of Banks | [44] |
| John Berryman | 1936 | poet, scholar, and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry | [45][46] |
| Randolph Bourne | 1912 | Essayist and critic | [2][47] |
| McAlister Coleman | 1909 | Journalist, author, and political activist | [48][49] |
| David Cort | 1924 | foreign news editor of Life | [50] |
| Evert Augustus Duyckinck | 1835 | Biographer and publisher | [3][4] |
| Jason Epstein | 1949 | Co-founder of The New York Review of Books, co-founder of Library of America, and founder of Anchor Books | [51] |
| Edgar Fawcett | 1867 | Novelist and poet | [4] |
| William Dudley Foulke | 1869 | Literary critic, journalist, poet, and reformer | [38] |
| Allen Ginsberg | 1948 | Poet, author, and winner of the National Book Award | [52][53][8] |
| Robert Giroux | 1936 | Publisher, chairman and editor-in-chief of Farrar Straus & Giroux | [54][46] |
| Robert Gottlieb | 1952 | Editor-in-chief of Simon & Schuster, president and editor-in-chief of Alfred A. Knopf, and editor of The New Yorker | [2] |
| Alfred Harcourt | 1904 | Publisher and co-founder of Harcourt Brace; | [2] |
| John Hollander | 1950 | Poet | [54] |
| Richard Howard | 1951 | Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and translator | [55] |
| Joyce Kilmer | 1908 | Poet and literary critic | [56][57] |
| Gustav Kobbé | 1877 | Music critic and author | [39][4] |
| Henry Demarest Lloyd | 1867 | Pioneer muckraking journalist and progressive political activist | [58] |
| Jay Michaelson | 1993 | Writer, journalist, professor, rabbi, commentator on CNN, and a columnist for Rolling Stone | [8] |
| John L. O'Sullivan | 1831 | Magazine editor and columnist who coined the phrase manifest destiny and U.S. Minister to Portugal | [2][3] |
| Sam Quinones | 1964 | Journalist and author | [8] |
| Ed Rice | 1940 | Author, publisher, photojournalist, and painter | [13] |
| Henry Morton Robinson | 1923 | Novelist | [59] |
| Garth Stein | 1987 | Novelist and Academy Award-winning film producer | [60] |
| George Templeton Strong | 1838 | Diarist | [2][3] |
| Ralph de Toledano | 1938 | Editor of Newsweek and the National Review, journalist, author, poet, and novelist | [47] |
| Thomas Vinciguerra | 1985 | Journalist, editor, author, and founding editor of The Week | [47][61] |
| Walter Wager | 1944 | Novelist | [62] |
| Samuel Ward | 1831 | Poet and lobbyist | [63][3][4] |
Medicine, science, and math
| Name | Class | Notability | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cornelius Rea Agnew | 1849 | Surgeon and medical director of the New York Volunteer Hospital | [3][4] |
| Gavin Arthur | 1924 | Sexologist, astrologer, actor, and magazine publisher | [50] |
| Robert N. Butler | 1949 | Pulitzer Prize-winning gerontologist | [64][65] |
| James Chapin | 1916 | ornithologist and curator of the American Museum of Natural History | [5] |
| Oliver Wolcott Gibbs | 1841 | Chemist and president of the National Academy of Sciences | [3][4] |
| Emory McClintock | 1859 | actuary | [66] |
Military
| Name | Class | Notability | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| John Chrystie | 1806 | War of 1812 veteran and namesake of Chrystie Street in Manhattan | [3][4] |
| Alfred Thayer Mahan | 1858 | Military theorist, United States naval officer, president of the Naval War College, and historian | [67][3][4] |
Politics
Sports
| Name | Class | Notability | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paul Governali | 1943 | Professional football player and coach | [2] |
| William Milligan Sloane | 1868 | coach of the first U.S. Olympic team, historian, and professor at Princeton University | [2][4] |
Miscellaneous
| Name | Class | Notability | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lucien Carr | 1946 | Member of the original New York City circle of the Beat Generation and convicted murderer | [73][37] |
| Elbridge Thomas Gerry | 1857 | Social reformer, founder of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children | [74][3][75] |