Adventurer

Barry Bishop (1932–94), A&S ’54, was a member of the first American team to reach the summit of Mt. Everest and the official glaciologist and climatologist on Sir Edmund Hillary's 1960-61 Himalayan exploration. He also served as vice president of the National Geographic Society and chairman of research. Through the years, he had participated in research expeditions around the world with prominent scientists such as Jane Goodall and Mary Leakey. In 1994, he died in an auto accident at age 62.

Academic pioneers

Jennie Davis Porter (1876‒1936), Ed ’23, M (Ed) ’24, D (Ed) ’28, became the first African-American woman at UC to earn a PhD and the fourth in the nation to do so. She was born in 1876 to a father who was Cincinnati’s first African-American undertaker and a mother who taught school. Following in her mother’s footsteps, she a private kindergarten for African-American children in the West Side, became a teacher at Douglass School, then helped establish the Harriet Beecher Stowe School, where she became its principal, the first African-American woman principal in Cincinnati.

Darwin Turner (1931-91), A&S '47, M (A&S) '49, HonDoc '83, was UC's youngest graduate, earning his first degree at age 16. He had been admitted at age 13, earned his bachelor's degree in three years and earned a master's two years later. He went on to write 20 books while distinguishing himself in academia and heading the African-American World Studies Program at the University of Iowa. He died age 59 of a heart attack.

Attorney

Stanley Chesley, A&S '58, JD '60, HonDoc '93, is a nationally recognized attorney for defining class action law. The Cincinnati-based attorney, who has won literally hundreds of billions of dollars in class-action suits for his clients, emerged on the national scene in 1977 when he represented victims of the horrific Beverly Hills Supper Club fire, which killed 165 and injured 116, in Southgate, Ky. He eventually negotiated $49 million in settlements. Following the Beverly Hills formula, Chesley, considered the originator of the mass tort, has since represented thousands more victims of hotel fires, airplane crashes, industrial explosions and other catastrophes. (Read more.)

Comedian

Julius "Nipsey" Russell (1918-2005), att. '36, best known as a guest panelist on game shows from the 1960s through the '90s, especially "Match Game," "Password," "Hollywood Squares," "To Tell the Truth" and "Hollywood Squares." Because  he often made up poems on the shows, he developed the reputation as the "the poet laureate of television." He also had a leading role in the film version of "The Wiz."

Editor

William Strunk Jr. (1869-1946), A&S 1890, was author of "The Elements of Style," a revered book found on the desk of most writers and editors. In 1918, he originally self-published the book to aid his students at Cornell University where he had earned his PhD and ended up teaching for 46 years. He also hoped the book would "speed up his grading by allowing him to mark the number of the rule that had been violated on a student’s essay rather than writing out an explanation," says his great-niece Susan Beach. His most famous student was E.B. White, who updated the book after his professor's death in 1959 and published it under both of their names. After more than 50 years in print, the updated version has sold more than 10 million copies. Strunk also worked in Hollywood as an adviser on the MGM production of "Romeo and Juliet" in 1935.

Harry Graff, A&S '33, M (A&S) '34, was the editor of the local WPA Guide, titled "Cincinnati: A Guide to the Queen City and Its Neighbors." The 1943 book was the final volume in the prestigious American Guide Series. Graff, who was the regional supervisor for the WPA Federal Writers' Project, then state director, edited selections for the book, wrote some of the content and selected photos. Later, he opened the PR/advertising firm Harry W. Graff Inc. in New York, helped several international airlines develop U.S. routes and wrote several books on travel management. A high school valedictorian, he enrolled at UC at age 16.

Engineers

Joseph Strauss (1870–1938), Eng 1892, HonDoc '30, engineered and built the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. As the chief engineer, Strauss hired the staff and championed for funding to get the bridge built.

P. Ken Seidelmann, Eng '60, M (A&S) '62, D (A&S) '68, is director of astrometry at the U.S. Naval Observatory; co-discoverer of Calypso, the 25th satellite of Saturn; a former member of the Wide Field/Planetary Camera Team of the Hubble Space Telescope; a research professor at the University of Virginia. Author of more than 100 scientific papers and editor of "Explanatory Supplement to the Astronomical Almanac," Seidelmann modernized almanacs in his field and introduced electronic almanacs. The minor planet 3217 (a main-belt asteroid discovered in 1980) is named after him. (See his website.)

Arnold Spielberg, Eng '49, a  computer-engineering pioneer, holds 12 patents and is an amateur filmmaker who bankrolled the first feature film production of his son, Steven. (He was also a World War II vet who inspired his son's movie "Saving Private Ryan.") Spielberg designed the first computerized point-of-sale system in the world for RCA in 1953. Later he fathered GE's series 200 computers.

Liang Sili, PhD (Eng) '49, a specialist in missile-control systems, led efforts to establish the Chinese astronautical industry.

Politicians

William Howard Taft (1857-1930), Law 1880, HonDoc ’25, 27th U.S. president, 1909-13; chief justice, 1921-30; U.S. solicitor general, 1890-92

Charles Dawes (1865-1951), Law 1886, 30th U.S. vice president, 1925-29;  Nobel Peace Prize laureate, 1925

Caleb Blood Smith (1808-64), att. UC 1820s, American journalist; U.S. secretary of the Interior under Abraham Lincoln, 1861; influential in securing Lincoln's nomination for the president at Chicago Republican National Convention, 1860

James Denver (1817-1892), Law 1844,  U.S. commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1857; governor of the Kansas Territory, 1857-58; namesake of Denver, Colo., and of the Denver omelet. He was a politician, lawyer, soldier and accomplished actor.

Samuel Fenton Cary (1814-1900), Law 1837, U.S. vice presidential candidate in 1876, prohibitionist author and lecturer, anti-slavery leader

George Hunt Pendleton (1808-1864),  att. UC 1840s, the Democratic nominee for U.S. vice president in 1864; married Alice Key, the daughter of Francis Scott Key

William Lawrence (1819–99), Law '1840, first comptroller of the U.S. Treasury (1880-85), chairman of the Committee on War Claims arising from the Civil War and influential in creating the U.S. Department of Justice, helping to create the American Red Cross and ratifying the Geneva Convention

Edward Noyes  (1832-90), Law 1858, governor of Ohio, 1872-74; U.S. minister to France, 1877-81

Joseph "Uncle Joe" Cannon (1836–1926), att. Law 1858, 40th speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, 1903-11; cumulatively served 48 years in Congress; cover subject of the first issue of Time magazine in 1923. The Cannon House Office Building, named for him, is the oldest congressional office building in Washington, D.C.

Judson Harmon (1846-1927), Law 1870, U.S. attorney general, 1895-97; Ohio governor, 1909-13

James Beauchamp "Champ" Clark (1850–1921), Law 1875, 41st Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, 1911-19

Lawrence Maxwell Jr. (1853-1927), Law 1875, U.S. solicitor general, 1893-95

Nicholas Longworth IV (1869–1931), Law 1894, 43rd Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, 1925-31

Charles Sawyer (1887-1979), Law '11, U.S. secretary of Commerce, 1948-53; ambassador to Belgium and Luxembourg, 1944-45

Theodore "Ted" Berry (1905-2000), Law '31, first African-American mayor of Cincinnati, pivotal attorney in the Civil Rights Movement for the NAACP

Helen Elsie Austin (1908-2004), Law '30, U.S. Foreign Service officer, 1960-70; first black woman to graduate from UC College of Law and one of he first African Americans admitted to the practice of law in the U.S.

John "Jack" Gilligan, Law '47, governor of Ohio, 1970-75; administrator of U.S. Agency for International Development, 1977-79; director of the U.S. Institute for Public Policy, 97-86

Robert Taft II, JD '76, HonDoc ’00, 67th governor of Ohio, 1999-2007. (Yes, it’s the same family as William Howard.)

John Altenburg, Law '73, U.S. Army major general, military lawyer and appointing authority for military commissions covering detainees at Guantanamo, 2003-06