List of Syracuse University people

Jesse Truesdell Peck

• Jesse Truesdell Peck – first chairman of the university's board of trustees
• George F. Comstock
• George L. Taylor
• Charles Andrews

Syracuse has had many financial supporters, but some stand out by the magnitude of their contributions. Among those who have made transformative donations commemorated at the university are:

• John Dustin Archbold- oil
• Andrew Carnegie- steel
• George F. Comstock- real estate
• Joseph Lubin- real estate
• Donald Newhouse- publishing
• Samuel Irving Newhouse, Sr.- publishing
• Samuel Irving Newhouse, Jr.- publishing
• Margaret Olivia Slocum Sage – philanthropist
• Lyman Cornelius Smith- firearm and typewriter magnate
• Thomas J. Watson- IBM
• Martin J. Whitman – investment advisor

• William Alston – philosopher.
• Julia Alvarez – poet, novelist, and essayist.
• Richard Arnowitt – theoretical physicist.
• Donna Arzt – attorney and legal scholar.
• Abhay Ashtekar – theoretical physicist and creator of the Ashtekar variables for quantum gravity.
• Ernst Bacon – prolific composer.
• A. P. Balachandran – theoretical particle physicist.
• Peter Bergmann – won the Einstein Prize for research on quantum gravity.
• Catherine Bertini
• Howard Boatwright – Music School dean.
• Philip Booth – poet.
• Zachary Braiterman - philosopher and religious studies scholar
• Arthur C. Brooks
• Lori Brown – architect and associate professor
• Horace Campbell, Department of African American Studies and Department of Political Science
• Massimo Carmassi – architect.
• Bill Cole – musician, author (Department of African American Studies)
• Raymond Carver – short story writer.
• David Crane – former Chief Prosecutor for Special Court of the Sierra Leone
• Junot Diaz – writer
• Geoffrey C. Fox – theoretical physicist and computer scientist.
• Joshua N. Goldberg – theoretical physicist noted for work on general relativity.
• John Langston Gwaltney – African American professor of anthropology, author of Drylongso: A Self Portrait of Black America.
• Per Brinch Hansen – computer scientist.
• Douglas Holtz-Eakin – former Director of the U.S. Congressional Budget Office (2003–2005), and chief economic policy adviser to U.S. Senator John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign.
• Mary Karr – writer and poet.
• Bruce Kingma
• Arthur Komar – theoretical physicist.
• Melvin Lax – theoretical physicist and member of the National Academy of Sciences
• Donald Marolf – theoretical physicist who has worked on quantum gravity and relativity.
• Roscoe C. Martin (1903-1972) – Professor of Political Science at Syracuse University from 1949 to 1972.
• Janis Mayes – Author, literary critic.
• Daniel Patrick Moynihan – Senator from New York, political scientist
• Ivan Meštrović – sculptor and artist
• Micere Mugo – poet and playwright (Department of African American Studies, Department of Literature)
• Ei-ichi Negishi – chemist, winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize.
• Fritz Rohrlich - theoretical physicist, pioneer of quantum electrodynamics.
• Alexander Rosenberg
• George Saunders – writer.
• Milton Sernett – historian, author (Department of African American Studies, Department of History)
• Delmore Schwartz – poet.
• Huston Smith – religious studies scholar
• Lee Smolin – theoretical physicist noted for work on quantum gravity.
• Rafael Sorkin – theoretical physicist noted for work on quantum gravity.
• Eileen Strempel – soprano, Associate Dean of Graduate Studies, Associate Professor of Fine Arts
• George Sudarshan – theoretical physicist, winner of the Dirac Prize.
• Robert Thompson – media historian
• Mark Trodden – theoretical cosmologist.
• Douglas Unger - novelist
• Gabriel Vahanian – theologian, noted figure in the Death of God movement in 1960s
• Peter Van Inwagen
• Kameshwar C. Wali – theoretical physicist, author
• Frances Willard
• Tobias Wolff – writer

• 2016 – Donald Newhouse- President, Advance Publications
• 2014 – David Remnick- Editor-in-Chief, New Yorker
• 2013 – Nicholas Kristof- New York Times Columnist
• 2012 − Aaron Sorkin, American screenwriter, producer, and playwright
• 2011 – J. Craig Venter, American biologist and entrepreneur, President of J. Craig Venter Institute
• 2010 – Jamie Dimon, CEO JPMorgan Chase & Co.
• 2009 – Joseph R. Biden Jr., Vice President of the United States of America
• 2008 – Bob Woodruff, ABC News journalist
• 2007 – Frank McCourt, author/Pulitzer Prize winner
• 2006 – Billy Joel, composer and singer
• 2005 – Jane Goodall, primatologist, ethologist and anthropologist
• 2004 – Phylicia Rashad, actress
• 2003 – Bill Clinton, former U.S. President, 1993–2001
• 2002 – Rudolph Giuliani, former Mayor of New York City, 1994–2001
• 2001 – Eileen Collins, American astronaut
• 2000 – Ted Koppel, American journalist
• 1999 – Charles Schumer, U.S. Senator (D-NY), 1999–present
• 1998 – Robert Fulghum, author, essayist
• 1995 – Donna Shalala, Secretary of Health and Human Services, 1993–2001
• 1994 – Kurt Vonnegut, novelist
• 1990 – William Safire, journalist
• 1989 – Daniel Patrick Moynihan, U.S. Senator (D-NY)
• 1988 – Malcolm Forbes
• 1986 – Mario Cuomo, Governor of New York
• 1983 – Daniel Boorstin, Director, Library of Congress
• 1982 – Ted Koppel, journalist
• 1981 – Alexander Haig, U.S. Secretary of State, 1981–1982
• 1980 – Bill Moyers, journalist
• 1979 – Tom Brokaw, journalist
• 1978 – William Safire, journalist
• 1973 – Edward M. Kennedy, U.S. Senator (D-MA), 1962–2009
• 1969 – William F. Buckley, journalist
• 1968 – Walter Cronkite
• 1966 – Nelson Rockefeller, Governor of New York, 1959–1973
• 1965 – Robert F. Kennedy, U.S. Senator (D-NY), 1965–1968
• 1961 – Ayn Rand, novelist
• 1960 – Harry S. Truman, former U.S. President, 1945–1953
• 1959 – Robert Frost, poet
• 1957 – John F. Kennedy, U.S. Senator (D-MA), 1953–1960
• 1937 – Herbert Hoover, former U.S. President, 1929–1933
• 1930 – Franklin D. Roosevelt, Governor of New York, 1928–1932