List of Riverdale Country School alumni
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This list of alumni of Riverdale Country School, a college preparatory day school in New York City, includes graduates and students who did not graduate.
- Virginia Abernethy (born 1934), anthropologist[1]
- Dan Abrams (class of 1984), chief legal affairs anchor for ABC News[2]
- Josh Appelbaum, television writer[3]
- Sosie Bacon (born 1992), actress[4]
- Charlie Barnet (1913–1991), jazz saxophonist, composer and bandleader[5]
- Jacqueline Barton (born 1952), chemist[6]
- Rosalyn Baxandall (1939–2015), historian[7]
- Cliff Bayer (born 1977), Olympic foil fencer[8]
- Lisa Birnbach (born 1956, class of 1974), author of The Official Preppy Handbook[9]
- Richard Blumenthal (born 1946), U.S. senator from Connecticut[10]
- Niesha Butler, basketball player, actress[11]
- DJ Cassidy (born 1981), DJ, record producer[12]
- Kathleen Cavendish, Marchioness of Hartington (1920–1948), socialite[13]
- Garrett Chalfin (born 2004), crossword constructor for The New York Times[14]
- Louis Ozawa Changchien (born 1975), actor[citation needed]
- Chevy Chase (born 1943), actor[15]
- Suzan Johnson Cook (born 1957), pastor and activist[16]
- Jonathan Dean (1924–2014), United States ambassador to Mutual and Balanced Force Reductions talks[17]
- Richard Engel (born 1973), NBC News chief foreign correspondent[18]
- Harry Enten (born 1988), political journalist[19]
- Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919–2021), artist and social activist[20]
- Varian Fry (1907–1967), journalist who ran a program helping thousands of Jewish refugees escape from Nazi Germany[21]
- Peter Galison (born 1955), Joseph Pellegrino University Professor in history of science and physics at Harvard University[22]
- Alexander Garvin (1941–2021), urban planner[23]
- James Gleick (born 1954), science writer[24]
- Leopold Godowsky Jr. (1900–1983), co-creator of the first color transparency film[25]
- Rachel Hadas (born 1948), poet, teacher, essayist, and translator[26]
- Calvin Hill (born 1947, class of 1965), former NFL player[27]
- Molly Jong-Fast (born 1978), journalist and author[28]
- John Kao (born 1950), author and strategic advisor[29]
- Claude Kelly (born 1980), singer, songwriter and music producer[30]
- John F. Kennedy (1917–1963), president of the United States, attended Riverdale's Lower School[31]
- Robert F. Kennedy (1925–1968), U.S. senator[32]
- Ron Kim (born 1979), politician[33]
- Carlos Kleiber (1930–2004), conductor[34]
- Gerard Koeppel (born 1975), author, historian, and journalist[35]
- Robert Krulwich (born 1947), radio and television journalist[36]
- John Lahr (born 1941), theater critic[2]
- David Levin (born 1963), CEO of McGraw-Hill Education[37][38]
- Lee MacPhail (1917–2012), Baseball Hall-of-Fame front-office executive[39]
- Chloe Malle (born 1985), head of editorial content at Vogue
- Leopold Mannes (1899–1964), co-creator of Kodachrome, the first color transparency film[25]
- Megan McArdle (born 1973), blogger and journalist[40]
- Nick McDonell (born 1984), author[41]
- Fred Melamed (born 1956), actor[citation needed]
- Howard Milstein, real estate developer[42]
- Steven Mnuchin (born 1962) United States Secretary of the Treasury 2017–2021[43]
- Wes Moore (born 1978), governor of Maryland[44]
- Tim Morehouse (born 1978), fencer, 2008 Olympic silver medalist[45]
- William C. W. Mow (born 1936), entrepreneur, chairman and CEO of Bugle Boy Industries[46][47][48][49][50]
- André Nemec (born 1972), screenwriter[3]
- Robin Pogrebin (born 1965), journalist[51]
- Ed Rendell (born 1944), governor of Pennsylvania[52]
- Cesar Romero (1907–1994), actor[citation needed]
- Clifford Ross (born 1952), photographer and artist[citation needed]
- Tracee Ellis Ross (born 1972), actress[53]
- Andy Russell, founder and CEO of Trigger Media[54]
- Carly Simon (born 1943), singer
- Scott Snyder, author
- Jordana Spiro (born 1977), actor
- Max Stafford-Clark, English theatre director
- Jason Strauss (born 1974), co-founder and co-CEO of Tao Group Hospitality[55]
- Ratan Tata (1937–2024), former chairman of Tata Group
- Peter Vack, actor[56]
- Jeffrey Vinik (born 1959), owner of the Tampa Bay Lightning[57]
- Joss Whedon (born 1964), writer, director, and executive producer; creator of several television series (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, Serenity)
- David Yazbek (born 1961), composer, lyricist, writer for Broadway and TV, including The Full Monty, The Band's Visit, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
- Tim Zagat (class of 1957), restaurant critic[58]
- Michael Zakarin, guitarist for The Bravery
References
- ↑ Virginia Abernathy Archived 2018-05-10 at the Wayback Machine, Southern Poverty Law Center. Accessed March 17, 2024. "Interestingly, given her advocacy of a total moratorium on U.S. immigration from Third World countries (Europeans excepted), Abernethy was born in Cuba, and was raised there and in Buenos Aires, Argentina, before coming to New York City and attending the Riverdale Country School."
- 1 2 Foxley, David. "Ed Hayes Takes On Riverdale Country School" Archived 2023-09-09 at the Wayback Machine, New York Observer, April 23, 2007. Accessed March 6, 2017. "He was talking about Riverdale Country School, the chi-chi private school where tuition is $33,000 a year and which counts MSNBC’s Dan Abrams, The New Yorker’s theater critic John Lahr and Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell among its alumni."
- 1 2 Longwell, Todd. "Appelbaum & Nemec : Friendship leads to big-budget Mission" Archived 2019-06-08 at the Wayback Machine, Variety (magazine), December 2, 2011. Accessed March 6, 2017. "It’s not surprising to hear Appelbaum and Nemec complete each other’s sentences. They’re not just longtime professional partners — they’ve been friends since they were third-graders at Riverdale Country School, a K-12 preparatory academy in New York."
- ↑ "Sosie Bacon’s Hollywood Journey: From a Star-kid to Acting Success" Archived 2024-03-17 at the Wayback Machine, Medium.com, October 25, 2023. Accessed March 17, 2023. "Sosie completed her schooling at the Riverdale Country School in the Bronx, where she enjoyed a conventional upbringing that was helped by the Jewish faith she shared with her classmates."
- ↑ Barnet, Charlie; and Dance, Stanley. Those Swinging Years: The Autobiography of Charlie Barnet, p. 4. Da Capo Press, 1992. ISBN 9780306804922. Accessed March 6, 2017. "I was at several different schools during this period and most of my stays were uneventful, but I had my first run-in with the rules of society when I was attending Riverdale Country School at the age of twelve."
- ↑ Monroe, R.A. "Love at First Lab; Chemist Jacqueline Barton blazes a trail with innovative DNA research" Archived 2024-05-28 at the Wayback Machine, Barnard magazine, Winter 2016. Accessed March 6, 2017. "Barton grew up in New York City, where she attended the Riverdale Country School for Girls."
- ↑ Grimes, William. "Rosalyn Baxandall, Feminist Historian and Activist, Dies at 76" Archived 2023-10-05 at the Wayback Machine, The New York Times, October 14, 2015. Accessed March 6, 2017. "Ms. Baxandall attended Riverdale Country School in the Bronx and Hunter High School in Manhattan."
- ↑ Wallace, William N. "Fencing; Mild, Modest Teen-Ager Knows How to Seize a Championship" Archived 2023-09-09 at the Wayback Machine, The New York Times, July 11, 1995. Accessed May 8, 2017. "Rather than start college in the fall, Bayer, who graduated from Riverdale Country Day, will devote his time entirely to fencing with his goal set on the Olympic Games at Atlanta next year."
- ↑ Rich, Motoko. "Rejoice, Muffy and Biff: A Preppy Primer Revisited" Archived 2024-08-28 at the Wayback Machine, The New York Times, April 3, 2010. Accessed March 6, 2017. "'I didn’t think people wanted to be like us,' said Ms. Birnbach, who attended Riverdale Country School and Brown University, then went on to enjoy what some might called the Life Well-Prepped: writing college guides and co-writing books about friendship, motherhood and being Jewish, as well as working a stint as a correspondent on CBS’s Early Show."
- ↑ Illson, Murray. "Interview; U.S. Attorney at Age 31" Archived 2024-05-28 at the Wayback Machine, The New York Times, July 17, 1977. Accessed March 17, 2024. 'After attending the Riverdale Country School in New York, Mr. Blumenthal entered Harvard College in 1963, graduated four years later with a bachelor's degree, magna cum laude and with a Phi Beta Kappa key."
- ↑ "Niesha Butler | WEI Atlanta". Archived from the original on December 30, 2019. Retrieved March 6, 2020.
- ↑ Bernstein, Jacob. "In the Spin Zone, Word’s Around; A Night Out With D.J. Cassidy", The New York Times, May 2, 2014. Accessed March 6, 2017. "'I’m more of a taxi dude,' said Cassidy, who grew up on the Upper East Side (he attended Riverdale Country School and New York University)."
- ↑ Hoffman, Barbara. "JFK’s forgotten free-spirited sister was the most cursed of them all; JFK’s forgotten free-spirited sister was the most cursed of them all", New York Post, January 16, 2016. Accessed May 8, 2017. "Like her brother the future president, Kathleen Agnes Kennedy — the fourth child of Rose and Joseph, future ambassador to the UK — was born in Brookline, Mass. After the family’s move to Bronxville, she attended the Riverdale Country School until her mother decided it was time for an education that precluded contact with the opposite sex."
- ↑ "Garrett Chalfin". XWord Info. Retrieved April 22, 2026.
- ↑ Wright, Megh. "Saturday Night’s Children: Chevy Chase (1975-1976)" Archived 2024-03-17 at the Wayback Machine, Vulture, September 23, 2014. Accessed March 17, 2024. "As a student Chase was trouble; he was expelled from the Riverdale Country School in New York, then Haverford College’s dean kicked him out for, as Chase called it, 'your general Animal House stuff, but not quite that broad.'"
- ↑ Beekman, Daniel. "Bronx pastor's higher calling: Rev. Suzan Johnson Cook becoming Obama's religious freedom ambassador", New York Daily News, May 4, 2011. Accessed March 6, 2017. "The Riverdale Country School and Harvard University grad, who lived on the Grand Concourse before moving to Suffolk County, has traveled to five continents preaching tolerance."
- ↑ Kennedy, Charles Stuart. "Interview with Ambassador Jonathan Dean" Archived 2024-03-17 at the Wayback Machine, Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, July 8, 1997. Accessed March 17, 2024. "We then moved to New York and I went to a school in Yonkers called Riverdale Country School and then to Harvard College."
- ↑ Kurtz, Howard. "Richard Engel sticks with combat coverage despite loss; NBC's war horse in IraqRichard Engel perseveres with combat coverage despite severe personal loss" Archived 2023-09-09 at the Wayback Machine, Houston Chronicle, October 31, 2006. Accessed March 6, 2017. "'He was a great writer,' says Ross Peet, a classmate at Riverdale Country School in the Bronx."
- ↑ "Politics and Statistics". Archived from the original on June 12, 2018. Retrieved June 8, 2018.
- ↑ "Lawrence Ferlinghetti". Poetry Foundation. Archived from the original on February 24, 2021. Retrieved February 25, 2021.
- ↑ Newman, Maria. "COMMUNITIES; A Hometown Hero for Ridgewood" Archived 2023-09-09 at the Wayback Machine, The New York Times, November 25, 2011. Accessed March 6, 2017. "Fry later attended Hotchkiss, and graduated from the Riverdale Country School in the Bronx."
- ↑ Overbye, Dennis (June 24, 2003). "Science Historian At Work: Peter Galison; the Clocks That Shaped Einstein's Leap in Time". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 9, 2023. Retrieved April 17, 2024.
- ↑ "Yale Alumni Magazine: Urban planner Alexander Garvin (May 2001)". Archived from the original on July 12, 2023. Retrieved April 17, 2024.
- ↑ Diamond, David. "James Gleick's Survival Lessons" Archived 2014-02-21 at the Wayback Machine, Wired, August 1999. Accessed June 17, 2009. "Gleick attended Riverdale Country School, where JFK once studied, and excelled in mathematics and science."
- 1 2 via Associated Press. "Film inventors weren't just whistling Brahms", Chicago Tribune, June 30, 1985. Accessed March 6, 2017. "The product invented by Leopold Mannes and Leopold Godowsky Jr. remains the best-selling color slide film in the world, Kodak says.... Kodachrome began to develop in the men's minds as early as 1916, when they were inquisitive 15-year-old students at Riverdale Country School in New York City."
- ↑ "Hadas, Rachel 1948– | Encyclopedia.com". Archived from the original on September 29, 2023. Retrieved April 17, 2024.
- ↑ Katz, Michael. "Calvin Hill A Fan Again At 34", The New York Times, December 12, 1981. Accessed March 6, 2017. "If there is poetic justice in the N.F.L., Hill will play against the Jets, a team representing the city where he was a prep school sensation at Riverdale Country School."
- ↑ "She's Her Mother's Daughter, but Her Life's Plot is All Her Own". Los Angeles Times. September 10, 2001. Archived from the original on November 20, 2023. Retrieved April 17, 2024.
- ↑ Kao, John. Jamming: The Art and Discipline of Business Creativity, p. 30. HarperBusiness, 1996. ISBN 9780887307461. Accessed March 6, 2017. "My parents decided not to risk my future in the wasteland of a New York City public high school, and instead sent me to a more rigorous institution, the Riverdale Country School."
- ↑ "Claude Kelly Clinic" Archived 2021-01-16 at the Wayback Machine, Berklee College of Music. Accessed March 6, 2017. "Kelly's mother was serious about his education too. He attended the noted private school Riverdale Country School in the Bronx, and he performed around New York with the New York Boys Choir."
- ↑ Newman, Andy; and Burgess, Joseph. "New York Today: J.F.K. in the Bronx", The New York Times, November 20, 2013. Accessed March 6, 2017. "At the Riverdale Country School, Mr. Kennedy was not a star student."
- ↑ Schneider, Steven K. Robert F. Kennedy, p. 14. iUniverse, 2001. ISBN 9780595137015. Accessed March 6, 2017. "Robert attended the public and private schools in Hyannis Port, Bronxville Public School for the third, fourth and fifth grades. and the private Riverdale Country Day School."
- ↑ Colangelo, Lisa L. "Ron Kim, first Korean-American elected to state Legislature, urges teens to pursue their passions" Archived 2023-06-03 at the Wayback Machine, New York Daily News, October 20, 2013. Accessed March 6, 2017. "Like other immigrants, they worked around the clock so their only child, Ron, could attend the elite Riverdale Country Day School."
- ↑ Barber, Charles. Corresponding with Carlos: A Biography of Carlos Kleiber, p. 28. Scarecrow Press, 2011. ISBN 0810881438. "He was enrolled at the private Riverdale Country School, graduating there in June 1948."
- ↑ Staff. "Diane M. Connal Wed To Gerard T. Koeppel" Archived 2023-09-09 at the Wayback Machine, The New York Times, May 18, 1987. Accessed May 8, 2017. "Mr. Koeppel, the news producer for the Mutual Radio Network in New York, graduated from the Riverdale Country Day School and Wesleyan University."
- ↑ Steinberg, Maxwell. "Richard Engel ‘92, Reporting on the Global Picture from Abroad" Archived 2024-03-17 at the Wayback Machine, The Riverdale Review, April 6, 2023. Accessed March 17, 2024.
- ↑ Staff. "Riverdale alum addresses seniors" Archived 2023-09-11 at the Wayback Machine, Riverdale Press, June 19, 2008. Accessed May 8, 2017. "David Levin, a Riverdale alumnus who founded the KIPP Academy charter school in the South Bronx, gave the commencement address."
- ↑ Dwyer, Liz. "Your Favorite Public Education Reformer Probably Went to Private School", Good Worldwide, April 20, 2011. Accessed May 8, 201.
- ↑ Fitzpatrick, Frank. "MacPhail continues family's baseball tradition with Phillies", Philadelphia Inquirer, October 2, 2015. Accessed March 6, 2017. "He also played the game throughout his youth, at Riverdale Country Day School in the Bronx, with the amateur New Rochelle Robins, and finally at Dickinson."
- ↑ "Megan McArdle". September 18, 2012.
- ↑ McGrath, Charles. "Cramming a Lot Into a Youthful Literary Life" Archived 2023-09-09 at the Wayback Machine, The New York Times, August 2, 2009. Accessed March 6, 2017. "Nick McDonell ought to be an easy person to dislike.... He heard news of its acceptance while cruising home in the carpool from Riverdale Country School, where he was president of the student body."
- ↑ "Riverdale Country School Names Milstein Terrace to Recognize Longtime Support – Howard and Abby Milstein Foundation". September 22, 2011.
- ↑ McLannahan, Ben. " Steven Mnuchin, a hardball banker set for the TreasuryFormer Goldmanite anointed by Trump lacks big stage experience, writes Ben McLannahan", Financial Times, December 2, 2016. Accessed March 6, 2017. "One of five children, Steven was sent to New York’s elite Riverdale Country School and then to Yale."
- ↑ Rosenthal, Dave. "Q&A with author Wes Moore, The Other Wes Moore" Archived 2023-02-25 at the Wayback Machine, The Baltimore Sun, April 29, 2010. Accessed March 6, 2017. "Q: The Bronx wasn't the answer for you, even when your mother sent you to Riverdale Country School in the one plush part of the borough.... [A]... The Riverdale story illustrates that. It's a beautiful school, and my mother knew all about it from the time she was a girl; she knew that JFK went there."
- ↑ Wolfer, Sondra. "Olympic fencer Tim Morehouse takes his stab at being the best" Archived 2009-05-15 at the Wayback Machine, New York Daily News, July 21, 2008. Accessed August 5, 2008. "As a young teen, Tim Morehouse took up fencing at the Riverdale Country School as an excuse to get out of gym class."
- ↑ IRITANI, EVELYN (September 28, 1997). "Back to His Future". Archived from the original on September 9, 2023. Retrieved November 1, 2016 – via LA Times.
- ↑ "Bill Mow 2/15 – Asian American Rags to Riches Success Stories – GoldSea". goldsea.com. Archived from the original on November 18, 2015. Retrieved November 1, 2016.
- ↑ "Articles about William C W Mow – latimes". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on April 29, 2015. Retrieved November 1, 2016.
- ↑ "Bugle Boy to Battle on New Fronts : The firm's founder overcame personal and business woes to build a top clothing firm. : Now his company aims for new markets." by Barry Stavro, Los Angeles Times, August 8, 1989.
- ↑ "The Ticker – Bugle Boy Files For Bankruptcy," by The Associated Press, New York Daily News, February 3, 2001.
- ↑ "Speakers and Performers" Archived 2017-03-07 at the Wayback Machine, Riverdale Country School. Accessed March 6, 2017. "Oct. 22: 'The Changing World of News and Media.' Moderator: David Faber, News Analyst and Anchor, CNBC. Panelists: Margery Baker-Riker '66, Former Vice President, CBS News; Sanford Cannold '86, Producer, CNBC; Robin Pogrebin '83, Culture Reporter, The New York Times; and Kay Madati '91, Chief Digital Officer, Black Entertainment Television."
- ↑ Edward Rendell Archived November 29, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, The Pennsylvania Center for the Book. Accessed March 6, 2017. "He attended the prestigious Riverdale Country School for three out of the four years he was in high school, and in the 1961 yearbook from the school, the editors noted, 'Eddie has a good chance for success in politics, his chosen profession.'"
- ↑ Huff, Richard. "Ros is on Track in Race Against Fear" Archived 2016-11-03 at the Wayback Machine, New York Daily News, September 7, 1998. Accessed March 6, 2017. "Having been on the track team when she attended the Riverdale Country School in the Bronx, Tracee Ellis Ross was intrigued when a script came her way for which she'd play a track star."
- ↑ "Party Animal: How Host Committee is Becoming the Uber of Nightlife". Forbes.
- ↑ "The History of Tao Group, as Told by Noah Tepperberg and Jason Strauss". Hospitality Design. Retrieved June 24, 2025.
- ↑ "Peter Vack Has One Simple Request". Interview. February 2, 2012.
- ↑ "From Boston to Tampa: A Look at This Hedge Fund Star's Philanthropy". Archived from the original on March 6, 2017. Retrieved April 17, 2024.
- ↑ Fields, Jason. "Zagat gives local restaurants a boost" Archived 2023-09-09 at the Wayback Machine, The Riverdale Press, October 15, 2009. Accessed March 6, 2017. "Tim Zagat, who founded the survey as a hobby in 1979, and is a graduate of Riverdale Country School — class of 1957 — says that Riverdale deserves some attention for the variety of cuisines on offer."