15 Famous UMass Alumni Who Changed the World

The University of Massachusetts (UMass) is a New England based university offering 237 graduate and undergraduate programs, on campus or online. The most popular majors at UMass are Business & Marketing, Biological and Biomedical Sciences and Social Sciences. However, successful UMass alumni are famous for a wide range of occupations and achievements, and from a wide range of Majors studied. This guide will discuss 15 of the most famous UMass alumni.

World Leaders and Politicians

John F. Kelly

John F. Kelly is a retired political advisor and Marine Corps general. After military service in the U.S. Marine Corps, Kelly enrolled at the University of Massachusetts Boston where he graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in 1984. He then returned to the military where he rose through the ranks to become a four-star general leading the United States Southern Command from 2012 to 2016. Following this, Kelly joined the Trump administration and served as the Secretary of Homeland Security in Trump’s administration.

Betty Shabazz

Betty Shabazz (1934/1936 – 1997) was an American educator, civil rights activist and wife of Malcom X. Following the assasination of her husband, Shabazz enrolled at UMass where she earned a doctorate in higher education and curriculum development, graduating in 1975. Throughout her life, Shabazz was active in advocating for civil rights and racial tolerance, primarily through the delivery of lectures.

Scientists

Lynn Margulis

Lynn Margulis (1938 – 2011) was an American evolutionary biologist who made significant progress to the understanding of evolution. Margulis obtained her PhD from the University of California in 1965 and, after a few other assistant professorship roles, was appointed Distinguished Profesor of Botony at UMass in 1988. She later transferred to become Distinguished Professor of Geosciences which she held until her death. She taught at UMass for a total of 23 years. Throughout her career, Margulis is famous for her research of symbiosis in evolution and in 2002 was named as one of the 50 most important women in science.

Entrepreneurs

Jack Welch

John ‘Jack’ Welch (1935 – 2020) was an American businessman and chemical engineer. Welch graduated UMass in 1957 with a Bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering and, in 1982, also received an honorary doctorate from the University of Massachusetts. After his studies, Welch joined General Electric in 1960 where he worked as a junior chemical engineer. Throughout the next 20 years, Jack Welch climbed the ladder of the company which culminated with his appointment as CEO of General Electrics in 1981, a position he held for 20 years. Welch was highly successful in this position and in 2006, his net worth was estimated to be $720 million.

Writers and Journalists

Ted Hughes

Ted Hughes (1930 – 1998) was an English poet and childrens writer who taught at the University of Massachusetts from 1957 to 1959. Earlier in his career, Hughes focused on his poetry which was highly successful, including The Hawk in the Rain with which he won the Galbraith Prize in 1959 and Crow. Hughes also published several childrens books as well as working to translate multiple works into English. In 1984 he was appointed the Poet Laureate, a position he held until his death and The Times subsequently ranked him fourth out of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945.

James Foley

James Foley (1973 – 2014) was an American journalist and video reporter. James was awarded a Master’s in creating writing from the University of Massachusetts in 2002 and later went into a career of journalism, specialising in international conflict. While reporting on the conflict in Iraq, in 2014 Foley was murdered by decapitation in response to American airstrikes in Iraq. Foley was the first American citizen to be killed by ISIS and the video of the event shocked the world.

Sportsmen

Julius Erving

Julius Erving II, known as ‘Dr. J’, is a former American professional basketball player. While being enrolled at the University of Massachusetts from 1968, Erving played in two varsity college basketball seasons and became one of only six players to average more than 20 points and 20 rebounds per game. Following his college career, Erving pursued professional basketball in which he achieved great success, winning three championships and four Most Valuable Player Awards. Dr. J is perhaps most known for helping legitimize the American Basketball Association (ABA) and was widely known during the merge into the National Basketball Association (NBA) in 1976.

Marcus Camby

Marcus Camby is a former American professional basketball player who played 17 seasons in the NBA from 1996 to 2013. Camby was enrolled at UMass in 1994 where he set a freshman record of 105 total blocks during his first year. Marcus was highly successful in college basketball and was later inducted into the UMass Athletic Hall of Fame in 2010. Camby entered professional basketball where he played for teams such as the Toronto Raptors and New York Knicks. Camby was highly successful and currently ranks 12th on the NBA’s all-time career blocks list.

Phil Laak

Phil Laak is an Irish-American professional poker player who studied mechanical engineering at the University of Massachusetts where his skills in backgammon and poker developed. After his studies, Laak began entering Poker championships and was highly successful, now holding a World Poker Tour title and a World Series of Poker bracelet. Phil Laak has also had success as a television personality and has appeared on many TV shows.

Cale Makar

Cale Makar is a professional Canadian ice hockey player. Makar attended UMass from 2015 where he played collegiate hockey, establishing himself as a standout defenceman throughout two seasons. Following this, Makar entered the National Hockey League (NHL) where he achieved great success, winning the Calder Memorial Trophy, the Standley Cup and the Conn Smythe Trophy. Makar currently plays for the Colorado Avalanche team where he was selected as the fourth overall pick in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft.

Artists

Chuck Close

Chuck Close (1940 – 2021) was an American painter and visual artist known for his large-scale photorealistic portraits. After studying Fine Arts at the University of Washington and Yale University, Close worked as an art teacher at the University of Massachusetts from 1965 to 1967.Throughout his career, Chuck Close developed his artistic style where he became famous for his photorealistic paintings. In 1988, Close suffered an occlusion of the anterior spinal artery which left him paralyzed. Incredibly, Close was able to adapt his work style to be able to continue his painting despite this setback.

Actors

Richard Gere

Richard Gere is an American actor who studied philosophy at UMass on a gymnastics scholarship but left after two years before graduating. Gere began working in theatre and achieved success acting in London’s original stage verson of Grease in 1973. Following this, he started to appear in Hollywood films and rose to fame for his roles in films such as An Officer and a Gentleman, Internal Affairs and Primal Fear. For his role in the musical Chicago in 2002, Gere was awarded a Golden Globe award.

Liev Schreiber

Liev Schreiber is an American actor, screenwriter, director and producer. Schreiber began his acting training at UMass in 1989 before attending Yale School of Drama. Liev’s breakthrough role in acting came when he portrayed the accused murderer in the Scream trilogy. Subsequently, Schreiber gained notoriety through films such as X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Isle of Dogs and also achieved success in many on-stage productions. Throughout his career, Schrieber has won a Tony award, among others and has been nominated for a range of Primetime Emmy and Golden Globe awards.

Economists

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Nassim Nicholas Talen is a Lebansese-American mathematical statistician and economist. Following education and a career in the financial industry, Taleb pursued a career as a researcher and professor at a number of institutions including the University of Maasachusetts. In his research, he focused on problems of randomness, probability and uncertainty which informed him to heavily critisise the risk management methods used in the finance industry and thus predicted the financial crisis of 2008.

Richard D. Wolff

Richard D. Wolff is an American Marxian economist who currently works at the University of Massachusetts as a professor emeritus of economics. Wolff achieved his economics education through the universities of Harvard, Stanford and Yale before pursuing an academic career. Wolff was hired by UMass in 1973 and has worked there since, although from 2008 as a visiting professor. Richard Wolff is known for his work on economic methodology and class analysis and has released three books on Marxism.

Spend your Summer in Massachusetts with Summer Boarding Courses

To begin your journey to the University of Massachusetts, you can take part in one of their 6-week pre-college summer programs. While developing your knowledge through one of their many summer courses, you will also gain a good insight into what studying at UMass looks like. Taking part can also fuel the personal and academic growth needed to one day also become a UMass alumni world changer.

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