List of Ethical Culture Fieldston School alumni

This list of alumni of Ethical Culture Fieldston School includes graduates and non-graduate former students.

• Jill Abramson – former executive editor of The New York Times^[1]
• Carolyn Adams – dancer, choreographer, teacher^[2]
• Debo Adegbile – civil rights attorney
• Clifford Alexander Jr. – former Secretary of the Army^[3]
• George J. Ames – former Lazard executive
• Joseph Amiel – author^[4]
• Diane Arbus – photographer^[5]
• Mary T. Bassett – Physician and public health researcher and public advocate
• Melinda Beck (illustrator) - artist
• Richard D. Brown – historian of colonial and revolutionary-era America; professor emeritus at the University of Connecticut
• Nancy Cantor – chancellor, Syracuse University^[6]
• Peter H. Christensen – academic
• Ernest Courant - physicist, known as the "father of modern particle accelerators"
• Jerry Craft – Children's book author; American cartoonist
• Andrew Delbanco – critic and author. Director, American studies, Columbia University^[7]
• Nicholas Delbanco – novelist^[8]
• David Denby – film critic, The New Yorker^[9]
• Ralph de Toledano – author^[10]
• Glen de Vries – American entrepreneur in the field of medical science and pharmacology
• Joseph Leo Doob – mathematician
• Douglas Durst – real estate magnate
• Francis Fergusson – literary critic and writer
• Rita Gam – film actress
• Jim Gardner – longtime WPVI-TV news anchor
• Alan Gilbert – music director of the New York Philharmonic
• Ailes Gilmour – dancer
• Leonie Gilmour – educator and writer
• Rob Glaser – internet pioneer
• Matt Goldman, performance artist. Co-founder, Blue Man Group
• Maggie Haberman – The New York Times political reporter
• Patricia Harris – Former Deputy Mayor of NYC, President of Bloomberg Philanthropies
• Judith Lewis Herman – psychiatrist
• Susie Linfield – author, critic, editor and NYU Professor
• Charles Herman-Wurmfeld – film director
• Robert Jervis – political scientist. Adlai E. Stevenson Professor, Columbia University
• Elizabeth Jonas (neurologist) – physician, neuroscientist, and professor, Yale School of Medicine
• Bess Kalb – comedic writer, author and writer
• Rodney Jones – jazz guitarist
• Jeffrey Katzenberg – film producer, media mogul^[11]
• Yosuke Kawasaki – violinist
• Sinah Estelle Kelley – chemist
• William Melvin Kelley – author (A Different Drummer, Dunfords Travels Everywhere)
• Charlie King – New York civic leader and politician
• Arthur Kinoy – civil rights lawyer
• Ernest Kinoy – screenwriter
• Walter Koenig – actor
• Joseph Kraft – public affairs columnist
• Jake Lamar – author, writer and playwright
• Louise Lasser – actress
• Christopher Lehmann-Haupt – author, The New York Times book reviewer
• Sean Ono Lennon – musician (did not graduate from Fieldston)
• Eda LeShan – child psychologist and author
• Carl P. Leubsdorf – Washington bureau chief, Dallas Morning News
• Doug Liman – film director (Bourne Identity, Mr. & Mrs. Smith)
• Andrew Litton – conductor, New York City Ballet
• Beulah Livingstone – motion picture publicist^[12]
• Douglas Lowenstein – president and CEO of Private Equity Council, founder and former president of Entertainment Software Association
• Douglas Lowy – cancer biologist; director of U.S. National Cancer Institute
• Staughton Lynd – peace activist and civil rights activist
• Jeffrey Lyons – film critic, WNBC-TV, New York City
• Mark A. Michaels – author and sexuality educator
• Bob Marshall – conservationist, writer, and the founder of The Wilderness Society
• Andy Marvel – award-winning musician
• Grace M. Mayer – curator at The Museum of the City of New York and The Museum of Modern Art
• Jane Mayer – best selling author, investigative journalist, The New Yorker
• Zach McGowan – actor
• Marguerita Mergentime – industrial designer
• Nicholas Meyer – film director
• Jo Mielziner – stage designer
• Olivette Miller – jazz harpist
• Marvin Minsky – pioneer in artificial intelligence at MIT
• Tim Minton – television journalist and media executive
• Alfred Mirsky – cell biologist
• Jeannette Mirsky – writer
• Frederic S. Mishkin – governor of the Federal Reserve Board
• Joan Morgan – Jamaican-American writer and author
• Howard Nemerov – former United States Poet Laureate
• J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904–1967), physicist, scientific director of the Manhattan Project, "Father of the Atomic Bomb"^[13]
• Jeremiah Ostriker – astrophysicist Columbia University, Princeton University (Provost 1995-2001)
• Eleanor Pepper (1904–1997), architect, interior designer^{[citation needed]}
• Marjorie Perloff (1931–2024), poetry scholar and critic, known for her study of avant-garde poetry^[14]
• Emanuel R. Piore (1908–2000, class of 1926)chief scientist of IBM, and electrical engineering pioneer^[15]
• Belva Plain (1915–2010), author^[16]
• Susan Poser (born 1963), President of Hofstra University^[17]
• Letty Cottin Pogrebin (born 1939), author^{[citation needed]}
• Eve M. Troutt Powell – Historian of Middle East Studies^{[citation needed]}
• Edward R. Pressman (1943–2023), film producer^[18]
• Richard Ravitch – business and civic leader
• Nancy Reiner – graduating as Nancy Russek, cover artist of Jimi Hendrix album The Cry of Love (1971), among others
• Jonathan Rosand – neurologist Massachusetts General Hospital
• Menachem Z. Rosensaft – attorney and founding chairman of the International Network of Children of Jewish Survivors
• Dan Rottenberg – journalist and author
• Muriel Rukeyser – poet and playwright
• David Sarasohn – associate editor and syndicated columnist for The Oregonian newspaper
• James H. Scheuer – US Congressman (NY)
• Steven H. Scheuer – film and television historian and critic
• Daniel P. Schrag – climate scientist, geologist Harvard University
• Deborah Schrag – oncologist Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
• Gil Scott-Heron – musician^[19]
• Nicole Seligman – lawyer, Sony executive
• Cynthia Propper Seton – novelist
• Laura Silber – author, former journalist and Vice President for Advocacy and Communications at the Open Society Foundations
• Mariko Silver – former president of Bennington College, President of Luce Foundation
• Lucy Simon – composer, singer
• Stephen Slesinger – creator of the Red Ryder comic strip
• Tess Slesinger – author/screenwriter
• Alan B. Slifka – Investor and philanthropist; founder of Big Apple Circus
• Jay Smooth – radio host and cultural commentator
• Donald J. Sobol – author of juvenile short stories; creator of Encyclopedia Brown
• Stephen Sondheim – composer; attended the Fieldston Lower School
• Dan Squadron – New York State Senator
• Andy Stein – musician
• Stewart Stern – screenwriter
• Paul Strand – photographer and filmmaker
• A. G. Sulzberger – the chairman of The New York Times Company and the publisher of The New York Times
• James Toback – filmmaker
• Richard Tofel – journalist, attorney, administrator, non fiction writer
• Doris Ulmann – photographer of Appalachia
• Laurence Urdang – lexicographer, dictionary editor^[20]
• Helen Valentine – founder of Seventeen magazine
• Elliot Villar – actor
• Andrew Weisblum – Oscar-nominated film editor
• Andrew Weissmann – attorney and professor
• Chris Wink, performance artist; co-founder, Blue Man Group
• Howard Wolfson – deputy mayor of New York City
• Jane C. Wright – oncologist^[21]
• Keith L. T. Wright – New York State Assemblyman
• Sheryl WuDunn – investment banker, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
• Adam Yarmolinsky – academic and author who served in the Kennedy, Johnson and Carter administrations
• Eli Zabar – New York City restaurateur
• Lynn Zelevansky – museum curator

References

1. Byers, Dylan (June 2, 2011). "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Jill Abramson". Adweek. Retrieved July 18, 2011.
2. "Carolyn Adams's Biography". The HistoryMakers. Retrieved 2025-01-01.
3. "Boss Man". Ebony. Johnson Publishing Company. June 1977. Retrieved July 18, 2011.
4. "Joseph Amiel (AC 1959) Papers, 1956-2004: Biographical and Historical Note". Asteria.fivecolleges.edu. June 3, 1937. Archived from the original on August 7, 2011. Retrieved December 1, 2015.
5. Rubinfien, Leo. "Where Diane Arbus Went." Art in America, volume 93, number 9, pages 65-71, 73, 75, 77, October 2005.
6. Lieber, Scott (May 1, 2006). "The path of Nancy Cantor: In the name of defending her values, she's won acclaim with academia, two chancellor jobs -- and enemies along the way". The Daily Orange. Archived from the original on March 15, 2012. Retrieved June 18, 2011.
7. "Andrew Delbanco to Offer University Lecture, 'Melville, Our Contemporary,' April 10". Columbia News. April 8, 2003. Retrieved July 24, 2011.
8. "Openings, Performances, Publications, Releases" (PDF). ECF Reporter. Winter 1999 – Spring 2000. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 28, 2012. Retrieved July 24, 2011.
9. "Will Ferrell's Commencement Speech For New York Private School Fieldston". Huffington Post. June 17, 2009. Retrieved July 18, 2011.
10. Holley, Joe (February 7, 2007). "Ralph de Toledano, 90; Ardent Conservative". Washington Post. Retrieved May 28, 2013.
11. Gordon, Meryl (June 3, 2002). "Comfort Food". Nymag.com. Retrieved December 1, 2015.
12. Ethical Culture School Record. New York City. 1916. p. 46. Retrieved December 21, 2013.
13. Robert Oppenheimer, Spartacus Educational. Accessed March 29, 2024. "As a child Oppenheimer attended the Ethical Culture Fieldston School."
14. Risen, Clay. "Marjorie Perloff, Leading Scholar of Avant-Garde Poetry, Dies at 92", The New York Times, March 26, 2024. Accessed March 29, 2024. "The Mintzes lived in the Riverdale section of the Bronx.... She attended the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in the Bronx and then Oberlin and Barnard, where she studied English and graduated in 1953."
15. "Paid Notice: Deaths PIORE, EMANUEL R.", The New York Times, May 24, 2000. Accessed March 29, 2024. "The Board of Trustees and the Ethical Culture Fieldston School community sadly note the death of Emanuel R. Piore, Class of 1926, a former Trustee."
16. Dixler, Elsa. "Belva Plain, Novelist of Jewish-American Life, Dies at 95", The New York Times, October 17, 2010. Accessed March 29, 2024. "Born Belva Offenberg in New York City on Oct. 9, 1915, she was a third-generation American of German Jewish descent; her father was a builder. She attended the Fieldston School and graduated from Barnard College in 1939 with a degree in history."
17. Victoria Schneps (23 December 2021). "Power Women with Victoria Schneps" (Podcast). Schneps Media. Event occurs at 4:10-4:25. Retrieved 1 January 2022.
18. Hagerty, James R. "Edward R. Pressman Produced Wall Street, American Psycho and Other Films", The Wall Street Journal, January 25, 2023. Accessed March 29, 2024. "Fieldston high school in New York, the bookish boy made an unlikely quarterback."
19. Wisnieski, Adam "Fieldston prepped poet for untelevised revolution", Riverdale Press, June 8, 2011. Accessed March 17, 2025.
20. Bruce Weber (August 26, 2008). "Lawrence Urdang, Language Expert Who Edited Dictionaries, Dies at 81". The New York Times. Retrieved March 27, 2009.
21. Weber, Bruce (March 2, 2013). "Jane Wright, Oncology Pioneer, Dies at 93". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 4, 2013.