* Pennsylvania bishop [[!wikipedia Henry_Ustick_Onderdonk]] (Class of 1805)
* U.S. Congressman [[!wikipedia Edmund_Pendleton]] (Class of 1805)
* New Jersey Governor [[!wikipedia Peter_Dumont_Vroom]] (Class of 1808)
* Theologian [[!wikipedia Jackson_Kemper]] (Class of 1809)
* New York bishop [[!wikipedia Benjamin_Onderdonk]] (Class of 1809)
* Financier [[!wikipedia William_Backhouse_Astor]], Sr. (Class of 1811)
* Congressman [[!wikipedia Charles_Ferris]] (Class of 1811)
* Maj. Gen. [[!wikipedia Stephen_Watts_Kearny]] (Class of 1812)
* Classical scholar [[!wikipedia Charles_Anthon]] (Class of 1815)
* Acting Rhode Island Governor [[!wikipedia William_Beach_Lawrence]] (Class of 1818)
* Bibliophile [[!wikipedia James_Lenox]] (Class of 1818)
* Explorer [[!wikipedia John_Lloyd_Stephens]] (Class of 1822)
* Railroad engineer [[!wikipedia Horatio_Allen]] (1823)
* United States Secretary of State [[!wikipedia Hamilton_Fish]] (Class of 1827)
* Journalist [[!wikipedia John_O'Sullivan_(journalist)]] (Class of 1831), coiner of the phrase "Manifest Destiny"
* Lobbyist [[!wikipedia Samuel_Cutler_Ward]] (Class of 1831)
* Literary critic [[!wikipedia Evert_Augustus_Duyckinck]] (Class of 1835)
* Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States [[!wikipedia Samuel_Blatchford]] (Class of 1837)
* Diarist [[!wikipedia George_Templeton_Strong]] (Class of 1838)
* Sportsman [[!wikipedia William_R._Travers]] (Class of 1838)
* Chemist [[!wikipedia Oliver_Wolcott_Gibbs]] (Class of 1841)
* Mayor of New York City [[!wikipedia Abram_S._Hewitt]] (Class of 1842)
* Financier [[!wikipedia William_Backhouse_Astor,_Jr.]] (Class of 1849)
* Military theorist [[!wikipedia Alfred_Thayer_Mahan]] (Class of 1858)
* Columbia College Dean [[!wikipedia John_Howard_Van_Amringe]] (Class of 1860)
* Novelist [[!wikipedia Edgar_Fawcett]] (Class of 1867)
* Diplomat [[!wikipedia Nicholas_Fish]] (Class of 1867)
* Assistant Secretary of State and Columbia trustees chairman George Lockhart Rives (Class of 1868)
* Historian William Milligan Sloane (Class of 1868)
* Journalist and social reformer William Dudley Foulke (Class of 1869)
* Illinois Central Railroad president Stuyvesant Fish (Class of 1871)
* Dramatic scholar Brander Matthews (Class of 1871)
* Music critic Gustav Kobb&ecaute; (Class of 1877)
* New York City subway chief engineer William Barclay Parsons (Class of 1879)
* U.S. Congressman and Assistant Secretary of War J. Mayhew Wainwright (Class of 1884)
* U.S. Ambassador to Germany James W. Gerard (Class of 1890)
* Mayor of New York City John Purroy Mitchel (Class of 1899)
* New York Times editor and "Topics of the Times" essayist Simeon Strunsky (Class of 1900)
* Playwright George Middleton (Class of 1902), president of the Dramatists Guild of America
* Publisher Alfred Harcourt (Class of 1904), co-founder of Harcourt Brace
* Shoe manufacturer Ward Melville (Class of 1909)
* Governor of North Dakota and U.S. Senator William Langer (Class of 1910)
* Union College president Dixon Ryan Fox (Class of 1911)
* Political scientist Parker Thomas Moon (Class of 1913)
* Congressman Frederic Ren&ecaute; Coudert, Jr. (Class of 1918)
* Western writer James Warner Bellah (Class of 1923)
* Oscar-winning screenwriter Sidney Buchman (Class of 1923)
* Writer Henry Morton Robinson (Class of 1923), author of The Cardinal and co-author of A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake
* Philanthropist Lawrence Wien (Class of 1925)
* Science fiction anthologist Groff Conklin (Class of 1927)
* Oscar-winning screenwriter William Ludwig (Class of 1932)
* City College of New York president Robert Marshak (Class of 1936), president of the American Physical Society
* John La Touche (Class of 1937), lyricist for Cabin in the Sky and The Golden Apple
* Conservative author Ralph de Toledano (Class of 1938)
* Minimalist poet Robert Lax (Class of 1938)
* Spiritual writer Thomas Merton (Class of 1938)
* English professor, and jazz and religion scholar Barry Ulanov (Class of 1939)
* East Asian scholar and Columbia University provost Wm. Theodore de Bary (Class of 1941)
* Oscar-winning screenwriter I.A.L. Diamond (Class of 1941)
* Holocaust author Gerald Green (Class of 1942)
* Economist Robert Lekachman (Class of 1942)
* East Asian scholar Philip Yampolsky (Class of 1942)
* New York Giants quarterback Paul Governali (Class of 1943)
* Grammy-winning record producer Orrin Keepnews (Class of 1943)
* Novelist Walter Wager (Class of 1944)
* Pulitzer Prize-winning gerontologist Robert Neil Butler (Class of 1949)
* Publisher Jason Epstein (Class of 1949)
* Poet John Hollander (Class of 1950)
* Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and translator Richard Howard (Class of 1951)
* Editor Robert Gottlieb (Class of 1952)
* Actor Ben Stein (Class of 1966)
* Novelist and Academy Award-winning film producer Garth Stein (Class of 1987)
* Lesbian writer and poet Carol Guess (Class of 1990)
* MTV personality Gideon Yago (Class of 2000).


<TABLE BORDER=2>
<TR> <TD>Famous Philo</TD>
     <TD>Class year</TD>
     <TD>How he/she brought glory to the society</TD>
     </TR>
<TR> <TH>[[!wikipedia Edmund_Pendleton]]</TH>
     <TD>1805</TD>
     <TD>US Congressman</TD>
<TR> <TH>[[!wikipedia Peter_Dumont_Vroom]]</TH>
     <TD>1808</TD>
     <TD>New Jersey governor</TD>
<TR> <TH>[[!wikipedia Jackson_Kemper]]</TH>
     <TD>1809</TD>
     <TD>Theologian</TD>
<TR> <TH>[[!wikipedia Benjamin_Onderdonk]]</TH>
     <TD>1809</TD>
     <TD>New York bishop</TD>
<TR> <TH>[[!wikipedia William_Backhouse_Astor]]</TH>
     <TD>1811</TD>
     <TD>Financier</TD>
<TR> <TH>[[!wikipedia Charles_Ferris]]</TH>
     <TD>1811</TD>
     <TD>Congressman</TD>
<TR> <TH>[[!wikipedia Stephen_Watts_Kearny]]</TH>
     <TD>1812</TD>
     <TD>Maj. Gen.</TD>
<TR> <TH>[[!wikipedia Charles_Anthon]]</TH>
     <TD>1815</TD>
     <TD>Classical scholar</TD>
<TR> <TH>[[!wikipedia William_Beach_Lawrence]]</TH>
     <TD>1818</TD>
     <TD>Acting Rhode Island Governor</TD>
<TR> <TH>[[!wikipedia James_Lenox]]</TH>
     <TD>1818</TD>
     <TD>Bibliophile</TD>
<TR> <TH>[[!wikipedia John_Lloyd_Stephens]]</TH>
     <TD>1822</TD>
     <TD>Explorer</TD>
<TR> <TH></TH>
     <TD></TD>
     <TD></TD>
<TR> <TH></TH>
     <TD></TD>
     <TD></TD>
<TR> <TH></TH>
     <TD></TD>
     <TD></TD>
<TR> <TH></TH>
     <TD></TD>
     <TD></TD>
<TR> <TH></TH>
     <TD></TD>
     <TD></TD>
<TR> <TH></TH>
     <TD></TD>
     <TD></TD>
<TR> <TH></TH>
     <TD></TD>
     <TD></TD>
<TR> <TH></TH>
     <TD></TD>
     <TD></TD>
<TR> <TH></TH>
     <TD></TD>
     <TD></TD>
<TR> <TH></TH>
     <TD></TD>
     <TD></TD>
<TR> <TH></TH>
     <TD></TD>
     <TD></TD>
<TR> <TH></TH>
     <TD></TD>
     <TD></TD>