Careers in Classical Studies

A classical education opens the path to fame and riches for you.

You think we are joking?

Have a look at the "classical careers" of these more or less famous people who were all trained in Greek and Latin.

Willamette University's own Classics graduates may not be rich and famous yet (after all, our Classics program was only started in 1998), but they are all doing quite well, as you can see here.

Classical Careers

L. Jane Addams

Social activist; Born: September 6, 1860 in Cedarville, IL; Died: May 31, 1935 in Chicago, IL

James A. Baker III

Politician; Born: April 28, 1930 in Houston, TX

Benjamin C. Bradlee

Journalist; Born: August 26, 1921 in Boston, MA

Jerry Brown

Politician; Born: April 7, 1938 in San Francisco, CA

Rita Mae Brown

Novelist, poet, screenwriter, and activist; Born: November 28, 1944, in Hanover, Pennsylvania

Willa Cather

Social activist; Born: December 7, 1873 near Winchester, VA; Died: April 24, 1947 in New York, NY

Raymond Chandler

Author & screenwriter; Born: August 28, 1888 in Chicago, IL; Died: March 26, 1959 in La Jolla, CA

Henry Roe Cloud

Native American educator and activist; Born: December 28, 1884 on the Winnebago Reservation in Northeast Nebraska; Died: February 9, 1950 in Siletz, Oregon

William S. Cohen

Politician; Born: August 28, 1940 in Bangor, ME

Bing Crosby

Harry "Bing" Crosby; Popular singer & actor; Born: May 3, 1903 in Tacoma, WA; Died: October 14, 1977 near Madrid, Spain

Colin Dexter

Author; Born: September 29, 1930 in Stamford, Lincolnshire, UK

Lian Dolan

Radio talk show host; Born: 1966

W.E.B. DuBois

Sociologist and social activist; Born: February 23, 1868 in Great Barrington, MA; Died: August 27, 1963 in Accra, Ghana

Angie Reed Garner

Artist; Born: 1969 in Lexington, KY

Charles "Chuck" Geschke

Computer entrepreneur; Born: September 11, 1939 in Cleveland, Ohio.

Carol Goodman

Author

Porter J. Goss

Politician and former director of the CIA; Born: December 10, 1938 in Waterbury, CT

Alex Horne

British stand-up comedian; Born: September 10, 1978, from Sussex, UK.

David Karp

Fruit detective (journalist & photographer); Born: in New York, NY

Jim Manzi

Former CEO of Lotus Development Corp.; Born: 1952

Karl Marx

Journalist, political economist, philosopher; Born: May 5, 1818 in Trier, Germany; Died: March 14, 1883 in London

Toni Morrison

Author and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature (1993); Born: 1931

Friedrich Nietzsche

Philosopher; Born: October 15, 1844 in Röcken, Prussian Province of Saxony, Germany; Died: August 25, 1900 in Weimar, Germany

J. K. Rowling

Joanne Kathleen "Jo" Rowling; Best-selling author and multimillionaire; Born: 1965

Dorothy L. Sayers

British author, translator, and Christian humanist.; British author, translator, and Christian humanist.; Born: June 13, 1893 in Oxford, UK; Died: August 28, 1957 in Witham, Essex, UK

Carl Schurz

German-American revolutionary, journalist, and politician; Born: March 2, 1829 in Liblar near Cologne, Germany; Died: May 14, 1906 in New York, NY

Lynn Sherr

Journalist; ABC news correspondent; Born: March 4, 1942 in Philadelphia, PA

J. R. R. Tolkien

Author of the Lord of the Rings trilogy; Born: January 3, 1892 in Bloemfontein, South Africa; Died: September 2, 1973 in Bournemouth, Dorset, England

Ted Turner

Billionaire philanthropist, cattle breeder, owner of a restaurant chain, and ex-media mogul; Born: November 19, 1938 in Cincinnati, OH

William Weld

Former governor of Massachusetts (1991-1997); Born: July 31, 1945 in Smithtown, NY