The following is a list of notable alumni of Taft School. The Taft School is a private, coeducational prep school located in Watertown, Connecticut, United States. The school was founded by Horace Dutton Taft, the brother of President William Howard Taft, in 1890.

Academics[edit]

• T. H. Breen '60, Guggenheim fellow, history professor
• Stevan Dedijer '30, founder of the Research Policy Institute, pioneer of Business Intelligence
• Alfred G. Gilman '58, Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine^[1]
• Mason Gross '29, President of Rutgers University
• Thomas Kuhn '40, philosopher of science, author
• Samuel T. Orton 1897, pioneer in the study of dyslexia
• Rollin G. Osterweis '26, Professor of history at Yale University

Arts and entertainment[edit]

• Trey Anastasio '83, Phish lead guitarist
• Jeff Baxter '67, musician (Steely Dan, Doobie Brothers)
• Henry Beard '63, co-founder of National Lampoon, co-author of Bored of the Rings
• Peter Berg '80, actor/director of Friday Night Lights, Lone Survivor
• Jason Blum '87, producer of "Get Out" and "Paranormal Activity", founder of Blumhouse Productions
• Mia Borders, '05, singer-songwriter
• Mary Chapin Carpenter '76, five-time Grammy Award winner^[2]
• Spencer Treat Clark '05, actor in Gladiator, Mystic River, Unbreakable, and The Last House on the Left
• Barnaby Conrad '40, author, artist, bullfighter
• Barnaby Conrad III '71, author and artist
• Dominique Dunne, actress^[3]
• Adam Duritz '82, lead singer of Counting Crows
• James Franciscus '53, actor in The Naked City, Longstreet
• Grant Goodeve, actor in Eight is Enough
• Geoffrey T. Hellman '24, longtime New Yorker columnist
• Deane G. Keller '17, painter and educator^[4]
• Alan Klingenstein '72, film producer
• Ralph Lee '53, Guggenheim fellow and Obie Award winner
• Lorenzo Mariani '73, international opera director
• Steve Sandvoss '98, actor
• Tom Santopietro '72, author and Broadway theater manager
• Fred Small '70, singer-songwriter
• Dudley Taft '84, member of Sweet Water guitars, vocals
• Karen L. Thorson '78, producer of The Wire, The Unusuals

Business[edit]

• Henry Becton, chairman of Becton Dickinson and Company
• Thomas Ludlow Chrystie II '51, investment banker, first CFO of Merrill, Lynch & Company and inventor of the Cash Management Account
• Peter S. Kaufman '71, investment banker, president of the Gordian Group LLC
• Joseph Irwin Miller '27, industrialist, Cummins Engine Company
• John M. Schiff '21, investment banker, philanthropist, honorary chairman of Lehman Brothers^[5]
• John G. Taft '68, financier and writer
• George Weyerhaeuser '44, chairman and CEO, Weyerhaeuser Company^[6]

Government officials[edit]

• William D. Brewer, U.S. Ambassador
• Nathaniel Neiman Craley, Jr. '46, U.S. Congressman from Pennsylvania^[7]
• Richard Funkhouser, U.S. Ambassador to Gabon
• Robert C. Hill '38, United States Ambassador to Costa Rica, El Salvador, Mexico, Spain and Argentina
• William S. Mailliard '35, U.S. Congressman, California^[8]
• Manuel Rocha '69, United States Ambassador to Bolivia 2000-02
• Earl E. T. Smith '22, United States Ambassador to Cuba (1958–59)
• Michael P. W. Stone '42, U.S. Secretary of the Army
• Bob Taft '59, Governor of Ohio
• Robert A. Taft 1906, U.S. Senator from Ohio 1939–53, majority leader
• Robert Taft, Jr. '35, Republican Congressman 1963–65, 1967–71, Senator 1971-76
• William Howard Taft III '33, United States Ambassador to Ireland
• Robert F. Wagner Jr. '29, Mayor of New York
• John S. Wold '34, U.S. Congressman, Wyoming^[9]

Legal and judiciary[edit]

• Flemming L. Norcott, Jr. '61, Associate Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court^[10]
• Robert W. Sweet '40, federal judge who heard New York Times v. Gonzales concerning the Judith Miller controversy^[9]
• Ralph K. Winter Jr. '53, federal judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, nominated to the court in 1981 by President Ronald Reagan
• Wesley S. Williams Jr., first African-American to serve both as legal counsel to the United States Senate and president of the Harvard Law School Association

Sports[edit]

• Darren Bragg '87, professional baseball player
• James Driscoll '96, professional golfer^[11]
• Patrick Kerney '95, professional football player
• Allison Mleczko '93, gold medalist in first women's Olympic ice hockey game at Nagano; silver medalist in 2002^[12]
• Max Pacioretty '07, professional hockey player for the Carolina Hurricanes
• Barbara Potter '79, Hall of Fame professional tennis player
• James Stillman Rockefeller 1920, Olympic gold medalist, 8-man rowing (Paris, France)
• Ryan Shannon '01, professional hockey player
• Tammy Lee Shewchuk '96, Olympic gold medalist in women's ice hockey, Salt Lake City
• Jaime Sifers '02, professional ice hockey player
• Katey Stone '84, head coach of 2014 Olympic Team USA women's ice hockey team, coach of Harvard Crimson women's ice hockey team
• John Welchli '46, Olympic silver medalist, Melbourne, 1956

Writing, journalism, and publishing[edit]

• Laurence Bergreen '67, historian and biographer
• Nelson Denis '72, journalist, screenwriter, former New York State Assemblyman
• Steven J. Erlanger ’70, London bureau chief (formerly Paris and Jerusalem bureau chief) for The New York Times
• Philip K. Howard '66, founder of Common Good, author of The Death of Common Sense: How Law is Suffocating America^[13]
• Thomas Kuhn '40, author of Structure of Scientific Revolutions, coined the phrase "paradigm shift"
• John Merrow ’59, Peabody Award-winning journalist and producer
• Sumner Chilton Powell '42, Pulitzer Prize winner in history for Puritan Village: The Formation of a New England Town^[14]
• Josh Quittner '75, author, editor of Business 2.0
• David Kenyon Webster '40, soldier, journalist, and author

References[edit]