Central High School (Philadelphia) - Notable Alumni

Notable Alumni

A

• Leon Abbett – former New Jersey governor (112th Class)
• Elliott Abrams – AccuWeather meteorologist, chief forecaster (223rd Class)
• Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz – poet and author (255th Class)
• Joe Augustyn – screenwriter, producer (229th Class)

B

• James P. Bagian – astronaut, physician (228th Class)
• Albert C. Barnes – art collector, founder of Barnes Foundation educational art institution (92nd Class)
• John C. Bell, Jr. – Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania (75th Class)
• Jim Braude – talk radio host (225th Class)
• Leo Braudy – cultural historian and film critic
• King Britt – DJ and record producer (245th Class)
• William H. Brown, III – former Chairman of the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (185th Class)

C

• George Campbell, Jr. – President of Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (220th Class)
• Philip Casnoff – actor (226th Class)
• Morris I. ("Moose") Charlap – Broadway composer (186th Class)
• Noam Chomsky – linguist and political activist (184th Class)
• Mark B. Cohen – Pennsylvania state legislator (225th Class)
• Frank "Tick" Coleman – one of the first three known African-American Eagle Scouts, educator (156th Class)
• Joel Cook – U.S. Congressman, journalist (33rd Class)
• Tarzan Cooper – basketball player for the New York Renaissance
• Bill Cosby – comedian and entertainer (left after 10th grade- 204th Class)
• Cassidy – rapper (would have been the 259th class, but he did not graduate from Central High School)

D

• Samuel Dash – professor at Georgetown Law (178th Class)
• James DePreist – orchestra conductor (202nd Class)
• John H. Dialogue – shipbuilder in Camden, New Jersey (5th Class)
• Ignatius L. Donnelly – author, politician, U.S. Congressman (13th Class)
• Joseph William Drexel – banker, philanthropist (13th Class)

E

• Thomas Eakins – painter (38th Class)
• Joshua Eilberg-- attorney, state legislative leader, and U.S. Congressman

F

• Douglas J. Feith – former U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, a major architect of the 2003 invasion of Iraq (230th Class)
• Norman Fell – actor on Three's Company (176th Class)
• Samuel Simeon Fels – manufacturer, philanthropist (72nd Class)
• Lee Felsenstein – personal computer pioneer and activist (219th Class)
• Louis Filler – historian, writer, and professor at Antioch College
• Larry Fine – Larry of the Three Stooges (132nd Class)

G

• William Glackens – painter, co-founder of the Ashcan School art movement (90th Class)
• W. Wilson Goode, Jr. – Philadelphia City Councilman at Large, son of former mayor W. Wilson Goode (241st Class)
• E. Urner Goodman – early leader of the Boy Scouts of America (114th Class)
• Oscar Goodman – mayor of Las Vegas, mob defense lawyer (left after 10th grade)
• Charles Goren – bridge player and author (130th Class)
• Robert Gross – Dean of Swarthmore College, 1990–2005
• Shelly Gross – theatrical producer, author (170th Class)
• Lee Guber – theatrical producer (170th Class)
• Daniel Guggenheim – industrialist and philanthropist, member of Guggenheim family (66th Class)
• Simon Guggenheim – industrialist, financier, philanthropist, U.S. Senator for Colorado (87th Class)

H

• John Harbeson – architect with H2L2 (111th Class)
• Joe Harris – mathematician at Harvard University
• Joseph Smith Harris – President of the Reading Railroad (24th Class)
• Quiara Alegría Hudes – playwright and author (254th Class)

I

• Albert Innaurato – playwright, theater director, and writer (225th Class)

J

• Major Jackson – poet and professor at University of Vermont (245th Class)

K

• Louis Kahn – architect (134th Class)
• Sam Katz – perennial Philadelphia Republican Mayoral Candidate (226th class)
• Ted Kaufman – U.S. Senator from Delaware (206th class)
• Charles Keinath – college basketball player and coach
• Alexander Kendrick – broadcast journalist (149th Class)
• Daniel Kevles – historian of science at Yale and California Institute of Technology
• Mark Kramer – neuroscientist (Merck/University of Pennsylvania) and jazz pianist (220th class)

L

• Cato T. Laurencin – orthopaedic surgeon, professor, chemical engineer (235th Class)
• Conrad C. Lautenbacher – Navy Vice Admiral (213th Class)
• Betty Liu – news anchor for Bloomberg Television (250th Class)
• Alain LeRoy Locke – author, philosopher, first African-American Rhodes Scholar (107th Class)
• Dr. I.(Israel) M. Levitt – author, Director Emeritus of the Fels Planetarium (146th class)
• Jerome Lowenthal – classical pianist, chair of Juilliard School Piano Department (192nd Class)

M

• John Marzano – Major League Baseball catcher and broadcast analyst (240th Class)
• Gary K. Michelson – orthopedic spinal surgeon (225th Class)
• Jeffrey Milarsky – conductor of contemporary music (243rd Class)
• Dr. Samuel Brown Wylie Mitchell – founder of Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity
• Louis J. Mordell – mathematician at University of Cambridge (111th Class)
• Joel Myers – founder of AccuWeather (208th Class)

N

• Robert N. C. Nix, Jr. – former Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court (186th Class)

O

• Eric Owens – opera singer (247th Class)

P

• Robert E. Pattison – former Governor of Pennsylvania (55th Class)
• David Pincus – businessman, art collector, and philanthropist
• Ramon L. Posel – founder of Ritz Theaters (186th Class)
• Hilary Putnam – philosopher (182nd Class)

R

• Jed S. Rakoff – United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York
• David Raksin – composer, "Grandfather of Film Music" (153rd Class)
• Ralph T. Reed – former CEO of American Express (114th Class)
• Allen Rosenberg – rower and rowing coach
• Arnold Roth – cartoonist, humorist (186th Class)

S

• Shunsuke Sato – world-renowned young violinist (261st Class)
• Morton Livingston Schamberg – modern artist
• Joseph Shallit - mystery novelist (156th Class)
• Bree Sharp – singer and songwriter (252nd Class)
• Lee M. Silver – professor of molecular biology Princeton University (227th Class)
• Tyree Simmons (aka DJ Drama) – hip hop artist and DJ (255th Class)
• Richard Bruce Silverman – chemistry professor and inventor of Lyrica (221st Class)
• John French Sloan – painter (92nd Class)
• Ben Stahl – Labor and civil rights activist
• Julie Stevens – actress, film director and producer (246th Class)
• Frank R. Stockton – writer and humorist (19th Class)
• Charles Stone III – film and ad director (243rd Class)

T

• John Baxter Taylor, Jr. – track and field athlete, first African-American Olympic Gold Medalist (107th Class)
• Teller – magician (224th Class)
• Howard Temin – geneticist, shared the 1975 Nobel Prize in Medicine (196th Class)
• Dylan Tichenor – film editor (245th Class)
• Arthur Tracy – vaudeville performer, singer, actor, known as "The Street Singer" (130th Class)

W

• John Wallowitch – composer, songwriter and cabaret performer (181st Class)
• Louis J. Weichmann – one of the chief witnesses for the prosecution in the conspiracy trial of the Abraham Lincoln assassination
• Andrew Weil – physician, author, proponent of integrative medicine (212th Class)
• Edward Weinberger – TV producer and writer (204th Class)
• Stephen William White – translator of Jules Verne and secretary of the Northern Central Railway (31st class)
• R. Seth Williams – District Attorney of Philadelphia (244th Class)
• Mark Wilson – theologian and educator (245th Class)
• Alexander Woollcott – drama critic for The New Yorker (110th Class)
• Alan Wolfe – political scientist and sociologist (213th Class)
• Jeremiah Wright – former Senior Pastor of the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago (211th Class)
• Ed Wynn (until age 15) – entertainer, actor, comedian, producer (110th Class)

Y

• Charles Yerkes – industrialist and financier (27th Class)

Z

• Ernest M Zaiser Jr - General Manager McDonnell Douglas F-4 Technical Services, Representative Director McDonnell Douglas Japan, Vice President Operations McDonnell Douglas F-15 Technical Services (181st Class)