Famous Gettysburg College Alumni

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Gettysburg College was founded by Samuel Simon Schmucker in 1832. It is located adjoining the battlefield in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, U.S. The college originated as a sister concern for the Lutheran Theological Seminary, and it was originally called  Pennsylvania’s College. The college is expanded over 200 acres and is situated at a distance of 55 miles from Baltimore and 80 miles from Washington, D.C. The administration block, Pennsylvania Hall, divides the college approximately into Northern and Southern halves. Almost 96 percent of the students live on the campus. The former U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower lived in a house in the vicinity of the Gettysburg College during the early days of his military career.  He served on the Board of Trustees and was given an office where he wrote his memoirs, and it is now known as Eisenhower House.

1. J. Michael Bishop

J. Michael Bishop
J. Michael Bishop

J. Michael Bishop was born in Pennsylvania on February 22, 1936. He attended Gettysburg College as an undergraduate. Here he belonged to Theta Pi Zeta Chapter of Lambda Chi Alpha International Fraternity. J. Michael was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1989. He shared the Nobel Prize with Harold E. Varmus. Bishop was also the co-winner of the 1984 Alfred P. Sloan Prize. He is best known for his Nobel Prize winning work on Retroviral Oncogenes. He discovered how the malignant tumors were formed from changes to the normal genes of cells. He established that such changes were prompted and could be produced by radiation, viruses, or exposure to certain chemicals classified as carcinogenic. He was also awarded the National Medal of Science in 2003.

2.   Charles Andrew Willoughby

Charles Andrew Willoughby
Charles Andrew Willoughby

Charles Andrew Willoughby was born to Baron T. Scheppe-Weidenbach and Emma Willoughby Scheppe-Weidenbach in Heidelberg, Germany on March 8, 1892 and died in Naples, Florida on October 25, 1972 at the age of 80 years. He attended Gettysburg College as a senior on the basis of his three years attendance at University of Heidelberg and Sorbonne in Paris. After graduating from the Gettysburg College, he got a commission as a second lieutenant in the Officer’s Volunteer Corps of the U.S. Army in 1914. He attained the rank of Major General in the U.S. Army. He served as Chief of Intelligence during World War II and the Korean War.

3. Owen Roizman

Owen Roizman
Owen Roizman

Owen Roizman was born in Brooklyn on September 22, 1936. He graduated from the Gettysburg College and was inspired by his father’s profession of cinematography. He started his career as an assistant photographer. He attained the position of a cinematographer by virtue of his talent and hard work. As a cinematographer, he was nominated five times for Oscar Awards for the famous movies like The Exorcist, The French Connection, and The Network. He is a member of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He photographed his professional colleagues, and his portraits appeared every month in American Cinematographic Magazine. His over 100 portraits are on display at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences grand lobby.

4. Fred Fisher Fielding

 Fred Fisher Fielding
Fred Fisher Fielding

Fred Fisher Fielding was born in Philadelphia on March 21, 1939 and raised in Mechanicsville, Pennsylvania. He attended Central Bucks High School and graduated with honors from the Gettysburg College. After his graduation, he attended the University of Virginia School of Law. He served the American government in various capacities but, most importantly, as an associate counsel of President Richard Nixon and from 1970 to 1972 and as counsel to the President for Ronald Reagan from 1981 to 1986. During the Watergate Scandal, while working for President Richard Nixon, he was the deputy to John Dean. He was selected by President George Bush on January 8, 2007 to replace the outgoing White House Council Harriet Miers.

5. Lieutenant General Keller Emrick Rockey

Lieutenant General Keller Emrick Rockey
Lieutenant General Keller Emrick Rockey

Keller Emrick Rockey was born in Columbia City, Indiana on September 22, 1888 and died in Harwich Port, Massachusetts on June 6, 1970 at the age of 81 years. He graduated from the Gettysburg College with a Bachelor of Science degree. Later on he attended  Yale University. On November 18, 1913, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps.  Lieutenant General Keller Emrick Rockey commanded the Fifth Marine Division in the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II and was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal (Army) and the citation reads ‘In a position of great responsibility as Commanding General of the Fifth Marine Division prior to and during the seizure of enemy-held Iwo Jima from February 19 to March 26, 1945’¦Major General Rockey skillfully welded the new and untried Division into a formidable, fighting command’¦’

6. Carol Bellamy

Carol Bellamy
Carol Bellamy

Carol Bellamy was born in Scotch Plains, New Jersey on January 14, 1942. She graduated from Scotch Plains Fanwood High School. She attended and graduated from Gettysburg College in 1963. At Gettysburg she was a member of Delta Gamma, which is one of the largest and oldest women’s sororities in America and Canada. In 1977 she was elected as the first female president of the New York City Council. In 1995, Boutros Boutros Ghali, the Secretary General of the United Nations, appointed her as Executive Director of UNICEF. Kofi Annan, the next Secretary General of the United Nations, granted her the second 5-year term allowing her to complete her 10 years from 1995 to 2005 as Executive director of UNICEF. She is credited with doubling the UNICEF resources from $800 million in 1994 to over $1.8 billion in 2004.

7. John Stanley Rice

John Stanley Rice
John Stanley Rice

John Stanley Rice was born in Brysonia, Pennsylvania on January 28, 1899 and died in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on August 2, 1985 at the age of 86 years. He graduated from the Gettysburg College and served as a trustee of the college from 1939 to 1972. Rice Hall of the Gettysburg College was named in his honor. He was a successful farmer as an apple grower and producer of packaged apple products. In 1932, he was elected to the State Senate, and in 1939 he was elected the Senate’s president pro tempore. Former U.S. President Kennedy nominated him as the Ambassador to the Netherlands.

8. Herman Haupt

Herman Haupt
Herman Haupt

Herman Haupt was born to Jacob and Anna Margaretta Wiall Haupt in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on March 26, 1817 and died in Jersey City, New Jersey on December 14, 1905 at the age of 88 years. He was professor of mathematics and engineering from 1840 to 1847 at Pennsylvania College, currently known as the Gettysburg College. He is best known for the restoration of the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad line, including the Potomac Creek Bridge. Impressed with his work, Abraham Lincoln, during a visit to the site on May 28, 1862 commented ‘That man Haupt has built a bridge 400 feet long and 100 feet high across Potomac Creek’¦’

9. George Michael Leader

George Michael Leader
George Michael Leader

George Michael Leader was born to Guy and Beulah Leader in York Pennsylvania, U.S. on January 17, 1918. He was raised at the York County poultry farms of his parents and received his early education in a one-room schoolhouse. He graduated from York High School and then attended Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. He was also educated at the University of Pennsylvania. During World War II, he served on an aircraft carrier. He was the only person from York County to be elected as Governor of the State. After the death of former Delaware governor Elbert Carvel in 2005, Leader became the oldest U.S. governor.

10. John Bosley Ziegler

John Bosley Ziegler
John Bosley Ziegler

John Bosley Ziegler was born in Midwestern, U.S. in 1920 and died in 1983. His family hailed from southern Pennsylvania. He graduated from Gettysburg College in 1942. He is best known for developing the steroid Dianabol, DBOL, released in 1958 in the U.S. by Ciba Pharmaceuticals. He administered it as an aid to muscle growth by bodybuilders like Bill March of the New York Club to whom he administered the steroid in 1959. The use of steroids was, however, banned by the FDA. Ziegler was proud of his development in the beginning, but at later stages when he came to know of the adverse effects and misuse by the sports persons, he felt sorry for it saying ‘But I wish to God now I’d never done it. I’d like to go back and take that whole chapter out of my life.’

Conclusion:

Students of the Gettysburg College call themselves as ‘bullets.’ The former bullets and current alumni of the Gettysburg College, having become famous, never forgot to spread the fame of their Alma Mater. The bullets, alumni, and loyalty go hand in hand as expressed in the loyalty song of the Gettysburg College:

‘Hail Gettysburg our Alma Mater, help us praise thy name.

We’ll ever lend our hearts and hands to help increase thy fame.

The honor of old Gettysburg calls forth our loyalty,

So cheer (Rah! Rah!) Our G’burg Bullets on to fight for victory!’

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