Ethical Culture Fieldston School - Notable Alumni and Former Students

Notable Alumni and Former Students

Among its many notable alumni and former students are the following:

• Jill Abramson - executive editor for news, The New York Times
• Clifford Alexander Jr - former Secretary of the Army
• Joseph Amiel - author
• Diane Arbus - renowned photographer
• Leslie Cohen Berlowitz - president, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• Leon Black - financier, Apollo Management and Drexel Burnham Lambert
• Jordan Bratman - music marketer
• Nancy Cantor - chancellor, Syracuse University
• Roy Cohn - attorney
• Sofia Coppola - Oscar winning writer/director (attended middle school at Fieldston)
• Andrew Delbanco - critic and author
• Nicholas Delbanco - novelist
• David Denby - film critic, The New Yorker
• Ralph de Toledano - author
• Joseph Leo Doob - mathematician
• Darcy Frey - author
• Rita Gam - film actress
• Alan Gilbert - music director of the New York Philharmonic
• Ailes Gilmour - dancer
• Leonie Gilmour - educator and writer
• Rob Glaser - internet pioneer
• Matt Goldman and Chris Wink - Two of the Three Founders of Blue Man Group
• Charles Herman-Wurmfeld - Director of the film "Kissing Jessica Stein"
• Ned Hirschfeld - Curling athlete
• Rodney Jones - Jazz guitarist
• Jeffrey Katzenberg - film producer, media mogul
• Yosuke Kawasaki - Orchestral violinist, chamber musician, and soloist
• William Melvin Kelley - author ("A Different Drummer", "Dunfords Travels Everywhere")
• Charlie King - New York civic leader and politician
• Arthur Kinoy - prominent civil rights lawyer
• Ernest Kinoy - screenwriter of early TV (Roots, The Defenders, Dr. Kildare)
• Walter Koenig - actor, played Pavel Chekov on TV's Star Trek; he held a school record in track and field until the late '80s
• Joseph Kraft - public affairs columnist
• Christopher Lehmann-Haupt - author, The New York Times book reviewer
• Sean Ono Lennon - musician
• Eda LeShan - child psychologist and author of books on parenting
• Carl P. Leubsdorf - Washington bureau chief, Dallas Morning News
• Robert Levey - columnist, The Washington Post
• Doug Liman - director of the film Swingers
• Andrew Litton - conductor, Dallas Symphony
• Douglas Lowenstein - president and CEO of Private Equity Council, founder and former president of Entertainment Software Association
• Douglas Lowy - co-creator of the HPV vaccine
• Staughton Lynd - an American conscientious objector, quaker, peace activist and civil rights activist, tax resister, historian, professor, author and lawyer
• Jeffrey Lyons - film critic, WNBC-TV, New York
• Bob Marshall - conservationist, writer, and the principal founder of The Wilderness Society
• Jane Mayer - staff writer, The New Yorker
• Nicholas Meyer - noted film Director, directed Fieldston Alumnus Walter Koenig in both Star Trek II and Star Trek VI
• Jo Mielziner - stage designer (South Pacific, Guys and Dolls)
• Marvin Minsky - pioneer in artificial intelligence at MIT
• Frederic S. Mishkin - Governor of the Federal Reserve Board
• Robert M. Morgenthau - New York County District Attorney
• Robert Moses - (attended for two years, per Robert Caro's Power Broker)
• Howard Nemerov - former United States Poet Laureate
• Gabriel Olds - actor, writer
• J. Robert Oppenheimer - physicist, Scientific Director of the Manhattan Project, "Father of the Atomic Bomb"
• Joel Perlman - artist
• Emanuel R. Piore - chief scientist of IBM, and noted pioneer of electrical engineering
• Belva Plain - author
• Letty Cottin Pogrebin - author
• Edward R. Pressman - film producer
• Richard Ravitch - business and civic leader
• Menachem Z. Rosensaft - noted attorney and founding chairman of the International Network of Children of Jewish Survivors
• Muriel Rukeyser - poet and playwright
• David Sarasohn - associate editor and syndicated columnist for the Oregonian newspaper (Portland)
• James H. Scheuer - U.S. Congressman (N.Y.)
• Gil Scott-Heron - musician
• Nicole Seligman - lawyer, Sony Corporation executive
• Robert B. Sherman - composer, lyricist, screenwriter, painter
• Stephen Slesinger - creator of the Red Ryder comic strip
• Tess Slesinger - author/screenwriter
• Donald J. Sobol - author of juvenile short stories
• Stephen Sondheim - composer, attended the Fieldston Lower School
• Dan Squadron - New York State Senator
• Andy Stein - Musician frequently on Prairie Home Companion
• Stewart Stern - screenwriter (Rebel Without a Cause)
• Paul Strand - photographer and filmmaker
• Thomas Strauss - former president of Salomon Brothers
• James Toback - filmmaker
• Richard Tofel - author
• Doris Ulmann - photographer of Appalachia
• Laurence Urdang - lexicographer, dictionary editor
• Barbara Walters - TV news broadcaster
• Andrew Weisblum - oscar nominated film editor Black Swan
• Howard Wolfson - political operative and deputy mayor of New York City
• Keith L. T. Wright - New York State Senator
• Sheryl WuDunn - former award-winning writer for the NYTimes
• Eden Wurmfeld - producer of the film Kissing Jessica Stein
• Adam Yarmolinsky - academic and author who served in the Kennedy, Johnson and Carter administrations.
• Eli Zabar - NYC restaurateur

Because of its prominence as one of New York City's top independent schools, many famous "movers and shakers" in entertainment, politics, news, business and the arts have sent their children to ECS-Fieldston; many families have multi-generational alumni.