Pomona College (/pəˈmoʊnə/ pə-MOH-nə) is an elite private liberal arts college in Claremont, California, and the founding member of the Claremont Colleges consortium. Many notable individuals have been affiliated with the college as graduates, non-graduating attendees, faculty, staff, or administrators.

Since its founding in 1887, Pomona has graduated 131 classes of students. The college enrolls approximately 1,690 students as of the spring 2024 semester and has roughly 25,000 living alumni. The top industries for graduates include technology; education; consulting and professional services; finance; government, law, and politics; arts, entertainment, and media; healthcare and social services; nonprofits; and research.

Pomona employs 278 faculty members as of the fall 2023 semester. The college has had 10 presidents, the first four of whom were Congregational ministers. The current president, G. Gabrielle Starr, took office in July 2017.

Notable alumni

Arts and letters

Visual art

Name	Class year	Notability	Ref.
Milford Zornes	1934	California Scene Painting watercolor artist
Roger Edward Kuntz	1948	Landscape painter
Marcia Hafif	1951	Artist, known for minimalist and process art works
Barbara T. Smith	1953	Performance artist
Helen Pashgian	1956	Light and Space artist
James Strombotne	1956	Painter
Mary GrandPré	1960s	Illustrator, best known for her work on the U.S. editions of the Harry Potter books
James Turrell	1965	Light and Space artist, known for skyspaces and Roden Crater land art project
Judy Fiskin	1966	Photographer and video artist
Chris Burden	1969	Performance, sculpture, and installation artist
Peter Shelton	1973	Sculptor
Miko Lim	2002	Director and photographer

Film and television

Name	Class year	Notability	Ref.
Joel McCrea	1928	Film actor (Sullivan's Travels, Foreign Correspondent)
John Whitney	1930s	Early computer animation filmmaker
Robert Taylor	1933	Film actor (Quo Vadis, Ivanhoe)
Art Clokey	Attended 1939–1943	Stop-motion clay animator and creator of Gumby
Amanda Blake	Attended c. 1950	Actress (Gunsmoke)
Richard Chamberlain	1956	Film and theatre actor (Dr. Kildare, Shōgun, The Thorn Birds), three-time Golden Globe winner
Robert Towne	1956	Academy Award-winning screenwriter (Chinatown; nominated for The Last Detail and Shampoo)
Anthony Zerbe	1958	Emmy-winning character actor (Will Penny, The Omega Man, Licence to Kill)
David S. Ward	1967	Film director (Major League) and Academy Award-winning screenwriter (The Sting)
Robert Blalack	1970	Visual effects artist (won Academy Award for Star Wars and an Emmy for The Day After)
Scott Paulin	1971	Actor (The Right Stuff), husband of actress Wendy Phillips
Lynda Obst	1972	Film and television producer
George C. Wolfe	1976	Two-time Tony Award-winning play director, playwright and film director (Nights in Rodanthe)
Allison Jones	1977	Emmy Award-winning casting director
Rosalind Chao	1978	Actress (The Joy Luck Club, Star Trek: The Next Generation)
Ted Field	1979	Media mogul and film producer
Paul Guay	1979	Screenwriter (Liar Liar, Heartbreakers, The Little Rascals)
Joe Menosky	1979	Television writer (Star Trek franchise)
Melissa Jo Peltier	1983	Television writer and producer (Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan)
Jim Taylor	1984	Academy Award-winning screenwriter (Sideways); frequent writing partner of Alexander Payne
Viveca Paulin	1991	Actor, wife of comedian Will Ferrell
Kelly Perine	1991	Television actor
Alison Rosen	1997	Podcaster, writer, and television personality
Aditya Sood	1997	Film producer (The Martian, Deadpool, Deadpool 2)
Sylvain White	1998	Film director (Stomp the Yard)

Music

Name	Class year	Notability	Ref.
John Cage	Attended 1928–1930	Avant-garde composer, musician, and poet
Vladimir Ussachevsky	1935	Composer of electronic music
Robert Shaw	1938	Fourteen-time Grammy-winning conductor
Chris Strachwitz	Transferred 1952	Grammy-winning record label executive and producer
Kris Kristofferson	1958	Writer, singer-songwriter, actor, and musician
Douglas Leedy	1959	Composer and music scholar
Frank Zappa	Auditor, c. 1959	Prolific musician, member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Lucy Shelton	1965	Soprano
David Noon	1968	Composer
David Murray	1977	Jazz musician
Frank Albinder	1980	Conductor, former director of Chanticleer
Eric Friedl	1988	Musician, The Oblivians; owner of Goner Records
Christine Fan	Attended 1990s	American-born Taiwanese singer and actress
Chris Cain	1999	Musician, We Are Scientists
Keith Murray	2000	Musician, We Are Scientists
Tunji Balogun	2004	Record label executive, CEO of Def Jam Recordings and co-founder of Keep Cool Records

Journalism and non-fiction writing

Name	Class year	Notability	Ref.
Relman Morin	1929	Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for the Associated Press
Mark Gayn	1933	Foreign affairs correspondent for the Toronto Star
Paul Fussell	1947	Cultural and literary historian, known for criticism of the romanticization of war
H. Arnold Barton	1953	Historian of Scandinavian history
Terry Drinkwater	1958	CBS News correspondent
Doug McConnell	1967	Television journalist
Bill Keller	1970	Executive editor of The New York Times and winner of the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting
Verlyn Klinkenborg	1974	Author, editor, and academic, known for his writings on rural America
Joe Palca	1974	NPR science correspondent
Mary Schmich	1975	Columnist for the Chicago Tribune and winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary
Lynn Walford	1979	Automotive technology writer
Richard Pérez‑Peña	1984	Reporter for The New York Times
Zafar Sobhan	1992	Bangladeshi journalist and editor of the Dhaka Tribune
Judd Legum	2000	Journalist, lawyer, and political staffer; founder of ThinkProgress
Ashlee Vance	2000	Technology and business journalist, author
Conor Friedersdorf	2002	Staff writer for The Atlantic, known for civil libertarian perspectives

Writing

Name	Class year	Notability	Ref.
Richard Armour	1927	Author, humorist, professor
Ved Mehta	1956	Indian writer
William Irwin Thompson	1962	Poet, cultural historian, cultural critic
Ray Young Bear	Attended 1969–1972	Poet and novelist, known for work on contemporary Native American identity
Garrett Hongo	1973	Japanese-American poet
Louis Menand	1973	Writer, The Metaphysical Club (which won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for History)
Richard Preston	1976	Writer for The New Yorker and bestselling author of The Hot Zone
Douglas Preston	1978	Writer for The New Yorker and Smithsonian, bestselling thriller author
Vikram Chandra	1984	Indian-American writer
Tom Lin	2018	Carnegie Medal–winning author

Other

Name	Class year	Notability	Ref.
Fong Foo Sec	Preparatory school, transferred 1901	Chinese educator and publicist, Pomona's first Asian student, English department editor of The Commercial Press
Essae Martha Culver	1905	First state librarian of Louisiana and president of the American Library Association
Clara Breed	1927	Librarian who opposed Japanese internment during World War II and supported children sent to camps
Edwin B. Crittenden	1938	Alaskan architect
David Ossman	Transferred in 1956	Writer and comedian best known as a member of the Firesign Theatre
Twyla Tharp	Transferred in 1960	Emmy and Tony award-winning dancer and choreographer
Marianne Williamson	Attended 1970–1972	Author, spiritual leader, activist, and 2020 presidential candidate
Don Daglow	1974	Video game designer and producer
Eddie Dombrower	1980	Video game designer and producer
Alex Linder	1988	Owner and operator of the Vanguard News Network, an antisemitic, white supremacist website

Government and law

U.S. Senators and Congresspeople

Name	Class year	Notability	Ref.
Alan Cranston	Transferred 1933	Democratic U.S. Senator for California (1969–1993)
Frank Evans	Attended 1941–1943	Democratic U.S. Representative for Colorado's 3rd district (1965–1979)
Chip Pashayan	1963	Republican U.S. Representative for California's 17th district (1979–1991)
Brian Schatz	1994	Democratic U.S. Senator for Hawaii (2012–present)

Federal officials

Name	Class year	Notability	Ref.
Leslie A. Wheeler	1921	U.S. government official and diplomat who helped liberalize international agricultural trade
William B. Bader	1953	United States Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs
Esther Brimmer	1983	U.S. foreign policy expert and Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs
David Holmes	1997	Diplomat and counselor for political affairs at the U.S Embassy in Ukraine

State and city officials

Name	Class year	Notability	Ref.
Silsby Spalding	Preparatory school, c. 1904	First mayor of Beverly Hills, California
Mark Wyland	1968	Republican California Senator
Ellen Bard	1971	Republican member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Tick Segerblom	1971	Democratic Nevada Senator
Cristina Garcia	1999	Democratic California Assemblyperson

Judges

Name	Class year	Notability	Ref.
James Marshall Carter	1924	Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Harry L. Hupp	Attended 1947–1950	Judge, United States District Court for the Central District of California, known for reforming treatment of alcoholism
Stephen Reinhardt	1951	Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Cruz Reynoso	1953	First Latino on the California Supreme Court, advocate for civil rights of farm workers; awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2000
George H. Wu	1969	Judge, United States District Court for the Central District of California
Christina A. Snyder	1972	Judge, United States District Court for the Central District of California
Richard G. Taranto	1977	Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
Kimberly J. Mueller	1981	Judge, United States District Court for the Eastern District of California
Halim Dhanidina	1994	Judge, California Court of Appeal for the Second District; first Muslim judge in the state of California

Diplomats

Name	Class year	Notability	Ref.
Hugh S. Gibson	Attended c. 1900	U.S. interwar diplomat, ambassador, proponent of the professionalization of the Foreign Service
Julian Nava	1951	First Mexican-American to become the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico
Kenneth L. Brown	1959	U.S. ambassador to Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, and Congo-Brazzaville

Activists

Name	Class year	Notability	Ref.
Virginia Prince	1935	Transgender rights activist and founder of Transvestia magazine
Myrlie Evers‑Williams	1968	Activist, first full-time chairperson of the NAACP
John Payton	1973	Civil rights attorney and president of NAACP Legal Defense Fund (co-founded Black Student Union at Pomona)
Kafi D. Blumenfield	1993	Nonprofit executive, activist, and civic leader

Military

Name	Class year	Notability	Ref.
James H. Howard	1937	Brigadier general, member of the Flying Tigers during World War II and Medal of Honor recipient
Verne Orr	1937	U.S. Secretary of the Air Force, 1981–1985

Business

Name	Class year	Notability	Ref.
Russell K. Pitzer	1900	Citrus farmer, founder of Pitzer College
Frank R. Seaver	1905	Lawyer, naval officer, oil drilling executive, and philanthropist; first president of the Associated Students of Pomona College
Donald McKenna	1929	Businessperson and philanthropist, known for donations to Claremont McKenna College
R. Stanton Avery	1932	Inventor of modern stickers, founder of Avery Adhesives
Elmer P. Wheaton	1933	Aerospace and marine engineer and executive at the Douglas Aircraft Company and the Lockheed Missiles and Space Company
Charles Scripps	1943	Chair of the board of the E. W. Scripps Company
Richard C. Seaver	1946	Oil drilling executive and philanthropist
Roy E. Disney	1951	Executive at The Walt Disney Company; nephew of Walt Disney
Frank Wells	1952	President of The Walt Disney Company and mountaineer
Burton Smith	Transferred 1959	Computer architect, co-founder of Cray, and Microsoft Fellow
Kent Brownridge	1962	General manager of Rolling Stone and CEO of Dennis Publishing and Alpha Media
Linda G. Alvarado	1973	CEO of Alvarado Construction; co-owner of the Colorado Rockies
Cathy Corison	1975	Winemaker
Hashim Djojohadikusumo	1976	Indonesian entrepreneur and brother of former Indonesian presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto
Lynn Forester de Rothschild	1976	CEO of E.L. Rothschild
Bryan White	1984	Co-founder of BlackRock's multi-billion dollar hedge fund investments business and Sahsen Ventures
Libby Armintrout	1986	Philanthropist and sister of Bill Gates
Bernard C. Chan	1988	Convenor of the Hong Kong Executive Council and President of Asia Financial Holdings
Osman Kibar	1992	Billionaire founder of biotech firm Samumed
Laszlo Bock	1993	Former Senior Vice President, People Operations, Google, and co-founder and CEO of Humu
Adam Bowen	1998	Billionaire co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Juul
Nick Friedman	2005	President and co-founder of College Hunks Hauling Junk
Maya Horgan Famodu	2012	Founder of Ingressive and named in Forbes Africa's "30 Under 30" list in 2018

Science

Name	Class year	Notability	Ref.
Edmund Jaeger	Attended 1900s	Desert ecologist
Wilson Popenoe	Attended 1910–1911	Agricultural explorer, influential in bringing the avocado to North America
Hugo Benioff	1921	Seismologist, known for work charting deep ocean earthquakes
M. Stanley Livingston	1926	Physicist, co-inventor of the cyclotron
Norris Bradbury	1929	Physicist, director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory from 1945 to 1970
Roger Revelle	1929	Oceanographer, one of the first scientists to study global warming, and primary founder of the University of California, San Diego
Xiao Guangyan	1942	Chinese petrochemist who researched catalysts used in petroleum processing
Robert Gomer	1944	Physical chemist, known for work in surface science and nuclear non-proliferation advocacy
Jean Mill	1948	Conservationist and creator of the Bengal cat breed
M. Frederick Hawthorne	1949	Inorganic chemist, known for work on clusters of boron hydrides; National Medal of Science recipient
Edward A. Knapp	1954	Physicist, director of the National Science Foundation
Ann Hardy	1955	Computer scientist, known for pioneering work on time-sharing
Ed Krupp	1961	Archeoastronomer, science educator, and director of the Griffith Observatory
Thomas D. Pollard	1964	Cell biologist and biophysicist
Sarah Elgin	1967	Biochemist, geneticist, and science educator
J. Andrew McCammon	1969	Physical chemist
Steven Clarke	1970	Biochemist
Sharon K. Inouye	1977	Geriatrician, known for work on delirium
Anna María Nápoles	1980	Behavioral epidemiologist and science administrator
Jennifer Doudna	1985	Biochemist, known for pioneering work in CRISPR gene editing; won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Thomas McDade	1991	Biological anthropologist
Amalie Frischknecht	1992	Polymer physicist

Religion

Name	Class year	Notability	Ref.
Charles E. Fuller	1910	Clergyman and radio evangelist who founded the Fuller Theological Seminary
Gladwyn M. Childs	1919	Minister, missionary, and anthropologist
Seraphim (Eugene) Rose	1956	Russian Orthodox hieromonk
Nancy Raabe	1977	Lutheran pastor and composer
Megan Traquair	1985	Eighth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Northern California

Academia

College presidents

Name	Class year	Notability	Ref.
David Prescott Barrows	1894	Ninth president of the University of California, anthropologist, major general in the California National Guard, and first editor of The Student Life
David Outcalt	1956	Chancellor, University of Wisconsin–Green Bay and University of Alaska Anchorage
John V. Lombardi	1963	Fifth president of the Louisiana State University System
R. Stanton Hales	1964	10th president of the College of Wooster and two-time U.S. badminton men's singles champion
Eileen Wilson‑Oyelaran	1969	17th president of Kalamazoo College
Anne M. Houtman	1983	20th president of Earlham College
Thomas J. Minar	1985	16th president of Franklin College in Indiana
Erika H. James	1991	Dean of the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania

Professors and academics

Name	Class year	Notability	Ref.
Carl Irving Wheat	1915	Lawyer, historian, and cartographer of the American West
Chen Hansheng	1920	Chinese sociologist considered a father of Chinese modern social science
David Keirsey	1947	Psychologist who developed the Keirsey Temperament Sorter personality questionnaire
Ellis Batten Page	1947	Professor and scientist, widely acknowledged as the father of automated essay scoring
John K. Roth	1962	Holocaust studies scholar, Claremont McKenna College
Michael Starbird	1970	Mathematics professor, University of Texas at Austin
Ingrid D. Rowland	1974	Historian of European architecture at the University of Notre Dame
Robyn R. Warhol	1977	Chair of the Department of English at Ohio State University and literary critic who helped develop feminist narrative theory
Matthew K. Franklin	1983	Cryptographer and professor of computer science at the University of California, Davis
Joanne B. Freeman	1984	Historian of early American history at Yale University
Vijay Prashad	1989	History professor at Trinity College in Connecticut
Tamily Weissman‑Unni	1992	Neurobiology professor at Lewis & Clark College

Athletics

Name	Class year	Notability	Ref.
Harry Kingman	1913	Pitcher for the New York Yankees
Charles Daggs	1923	Olympic track and field athlete
Robert Maxwell	1925	Olympic hurdler and two-time national champion
Earl J. Merritt	1925	Head football coach of the Sagehens from 1935 to 1958
David G. Freeman	1942	Seven-time U.S. national badminton champion
Betty Hicks	1947	Golfer, 1941 Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year
Darlene Hard	1961	Grand Slam-winning tennis player
Marilyn Ramenofsky	1969	Olympic silver medalist swimmer, and former women's 400-meter freestyle world record holder
Penny Lee Dean	1977	Long-distance swimmer and world record-holder for the fastest swim across the English Channel in 1978; later coached the Pomona women's swimming and diving team for more than 25 years
Mike Budenholzer	1992	Head Coach of the Milwaukee Bucks
Will Leer	2007	Professional track and field athlete specializing in the 1500 meters
Daniel Rosenbaum	2019	Professional basketball player in the Israeli National League

Notable faculty

Name	Active tenure	Notability	Ref.
Edwin C. Norton	1888–1926	First dean of Pomona
Frank Brackett	1888–1933	Mathematics and astronomy professor
Phebe Estelle Spalding	1889–1927	English professor, author, first female Pomona faculty member
Albert John Cook	1894–1911	Entomologist
Alice Mary Dowd	1904–1905	Educator, author
Hannah Tempest Jenkins	1905–1926	Painter, helped establish Pomona's art department and founded the Rembrandt Club
Fannie Charles Dillon	1910–1913	Composer
Alfred Woodford	1915–1955	Founder of Pomona's geology department
Philip A. Munz	1917–1944	Botanist who began the Pomona College Herbarium and was director of the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden
Ralph Lyman	1917–1948	Longtime head of Pomona's music department
Jerry Voorhis	1930–1935	Democratic U.S. Representative for California's 12th district (1937–1947)
John H. Kemble	1936–1977	Maritime historian
Henry Cord Meyer	1945 c. 1945–1964	Historian of central Europe
W. Conway Pierce	1945–1953	Chemist
Corwin Hansch	1946–1988	Chemist
Jean Walton	1949–1979	Dean of women who reformed Pomona's residential life and co-founded its women's studies program
James Grant	1950–1959	Painter, sculptor
Karl Kohn	1950–1994	Composer
Frederick Sontag	1952–2009	Philosopher and theologian
Leonard Pronko	1957–2014	Leading Western expert on Japanese dance-drama kabuki, awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure in 1986
Lewis Baltz	1960 c. 1960s	Photographer
Michael Armacost	1960s	Diplomat, ambassador to Japan and the Philippines, and president of the Brookings Institution
Stanley Crouch	1969 c. 1969–c. 1975	Cultural critic known for coverage of jazz, novelist, and English professor
Gerald M. Ackerman	1971–1989	Art history professor
George Gorse	1980–present	Art history professor
Martha Andresen Wilder	1972–2006	Scholar of Renaissance literature
Bobby Bradford	1974–2021	Jazz musician
Robert Mezey	1976–2000	Poet and translator
Frank Gibney	1979 c. 1979–c. 2006	Journalist known for humane postwar portraits of Japan and founder of the Pacific Basin Institute; awarded the Order of the Rising Sun in 1976
Gregg Popovich	1979–1988	Head basketball coach of the NBA's San Antonio Spurs
Karl Benjamin	1979–1994	Abstract painter
Everett L. Bull	1981–2020 c. 2020	Computer scientist
Thomas Leabhart	1982–present	Corporeal mime
Samuel H. Yamashita	1983–present	Historian and Asian studies scholar
Kenneth B. Wolf	1985–present	Scholar of medieval studies
Susana Chavez‑Silverman	1989–present	Creative nonfiction writer on Latin American culture
Shahriar Shahriari	1989–present	Mathematician
Katherine Hagedorn	1993–2013	Ethnomusicologist and Santería priestess
Cecilia Conrad	1995–2012	Economist, managing director of the MacArthur Fellows Program
David Foster Wallace	2002–2008	Essayist and novelist, author of Infinite Jest
Robert R. Gaines	2003–present	Geologist, Dean of the College
Kim Bruce	2005–2021	Computer scientist
Claudia Rankine	2006–2015	Poet
Meredith Landman	2010 c. 2010–2018	Linguist
Jonathan Lethem	2011–present	Novelist, author of Fortress of Solitude
Cameron Munter	2013–2015	Diplomat, ambassador to Serbia and Pakistan
Lise Abrams	2018–present	Cognitive psychologist
Also an alumnus of the college

Presidents of Pomona College

From 1888 to 1890, trustee Charles B. Sumner was the college's "financial agent with supervisory authority", and assumed many of the duties of a president. The subsequent presidents are:

#	Name	Tenure	Academic expertise	Ref.
1	Cyrus G. Baldwin	1890–1897	Congregational minister
2	Franklin La Du Ferguson	1897–1901	Congregational minister
3	George A. Gates	1902–1909	Congregational minister
4	James A. Blaisdell	1910–1927	Congregational minister
5	Charles K. Edmunds	1928–1941	Physics
6	E. Wilson Lyon	1941–1969	History
7	David Alexander	1969–1991	Theology
8	Peter W. Stanley	1991–2003	History
9	David W. Oxtoby	2003–2017	Chemistry
10	G. Gabrielle Starr	2017–present	Literature, neuroscience

See also

• List of Claremont Colleges people