Famous Undergrad Alumni from Across the Nation

The following is from our department Chair, Chris Uggen's web blog from October 2006:

Sometimes people act as though they fell into a sociology major by accident and emerged unscathed by the experience. I know this isn't true, so I'd like to compile a list of famous or influential persons who majored in sociology as undergraduates. A quick google got me to this ASA compilation taken from a 2001 Oregon commencement address . .

 

Politics:

Rev. Martin Luther King
Roy Wilkins, former head of NAACP
Rev. Jesse Jackson
Rev. Ralph Abernathy
Shirley Chisholm, former Congresswoman from NY
Maxine Waters, Congresswoman from LA
Barbara Mikulski, US Senator from Maryland
Tim Holden, Congressman from Pennsylvania
Cardinal Theordore McCarrick, Archbishop of Washington, DC
Saul Alinsky, father of community organizing
Ronald Reagan (double major in sociology and economics)
Emily Balch, 1946 Nobel Peace Prize winner (a social worker and social reformer)
Francis Perkins, social reformer and former Secretary of Labor
Richard Barajas, Chief Justice, Texas Supreme Court
Wellington Webb, mayor of Denver
Brett Schundler, mayor of Jersey City
Annette Strauss, former mayor of Dallas

Arts:

Ruth Westheimer, the “sex doctor”
Saul Bellow, novelist
Regis Philbin, TV host
Dan Aykroyd, actor/Blues Brother
Robin Williams, actor/comedian
Paul Shaffer, bandleader on David Letterman Show (and before that, Saturday Night Live)
Dinah Shore, singer

Sports:

Alonzo Mourning, Miami Heat
Bryant Stith, Boston Celtics
Brian Jordan, Atlanta Braves
Joe Theisman, NFL quarterback
Eric Bjornson, Dallas Cowboys
Bobby Taylor, Eagles cornerback
Ahmad Rashad, Sportscaster

There are some impressive names on the list (Paul Shaffer!), but c'mon, we can do better than this, can't we? Our department has about 600 sociology majors alone! What famous and infamous undergrad sociologists should be added?

Department of Sociology - University of Minnesota
909 Social Sciences Building, 267 19th Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55455
Phone: 612-624-4300 Fax: 612-624-7020 E-mail: socdept@soc.umn.edu