Some Famous Unitarian Universalists
Many Unitarian Universalists have played historic roles as political leaders, crusaders for social reform, and luminaries in science and art.

Six U.S. Presidents:  John Adams, Thomas Jefferson,* James Madison, 
         John Quincy Adams, Millard Fillmore, and William Howard Taft

Louisa May Alcott, author of Little Women.    
Susan B. Anthony, American leader for women's right to vote.
Béla Bartók, Hungarian composer. Clara Barton, Universalist, Founder of The American Red Cross. See our biography!
Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone.
Sir Timothy Berners-Lee, inventor of the World-Wide Web
        and Director of the WWW Consortium.
Ray Bradbury, science fiction author.
Luther Burbank, American botanist of the early twentieth century.  

Rachel Carson, environmentalist and author of Silent Spring. 
William Ellery Channing, abolitionist; founder of Unitarianism in America.  
William Cohen, Secretary of Defense during Clinton administration.  
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, English lyrical poet, critic, and philosopher.
Norman Cousins, humanitarian, author & editor of the Saturday Review of Literature.
Nathaniel Currier, lithographer; partner of James Merritt Ives.  
e.e. cummings, twentieth century American poet and playwright.

Clarence Darrow, attorney who argued in the Scopes evolution trial (1925).  
Charles Darwin, discoverer of evolution, author of The Origin of Species.
John Dewey, regarded as the father of progressive education in America.  
Charles Dickens, author of David Copperfield, A Christmas Carol, & many other works.
Dorthea Dix, crusader for the humane and curative treatment of the mentally ill.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, American Essayist and Unitarian Minister. See our biography!

Benjamin Franklin, Founding Father & Signer of The Declaration of Independence.
William Lloyd Garrison, abolitionist; editor of The Liberator.  
Charlotte Gilman, writer, reformer; author of Women and Economics.
Horace Greeley, journalist, politician, editor of The New York Tribune.

Edmund Halley—astronomer; discoverer of Halley's Comet.
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, African-American poet, abolitionist, women’s rights advocate.
Nathaniel Hawthorn, American author—The Scarlet Letter; House of Seven Gables.
John Haynes Holmes, co-founder of the American Civil Liberties Union.  
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Julia Ward Howe, composer of Battle Hymn of the Republic.  
Samuel Gridley Howe, pioneer in working with the deaf and blind.  

Lewis Lattimer, African-American inventor who worked with Edison.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, author of Paul Revere’s Ride.  
James Russell Lowell, poet, anti-slavery leader, and Unitarian minister.  

Horace Mann, a leader in the public school movement; U.S. Congressman.  
John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. 
Thomas Masaryk, the first president of Czechoslovakia.
Herman Melville, author of Moby Dick.
Samuel Morse, inventor of the telegraph.
Paul Newman, actor, entrepreneur, and philanthropist.
Sir Isaac Newton, physicist, discoverer of the law of gravity.
Florence Nightingale, founder of modern nursing.

Thomas Paine, patriot of the American Revolution; author of Common Sense.
Theodore Parker, Unitarian minister and a leading Abolitionist. 
Linus Pauling, chemist; Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, 1962.  
Randy Pausch, computer scientist, virtual reality pioneer; author of The Last Lecture(2007).
Beatrix Potter, author Peter Rabbit and other children's stories.
Joseph Priestly, clergyman and chemist; co-discoverer of oxygen.

Elliot Richardson, former Secretary of HEW; former Attorney General (1973).  
James Reebe, civil rights leader; killed at the Selma Alabama demonstration.  
Christopher Reeve, actor and advocate for the advancement of neuro-medical research.
Paul Revere, silversmith and patriot of the Revolutionary War.  
Tim Robbins, film actor, director, and writer. 
Benjamin Rush, considered to be the “Father of American Psychiatry.”  

Carl Sandberg, poet, writer, folklorist; Biographer of Lincoln. 
Margaret Sanger, birth control advocate. Co-founder of Planned Parenthood.  
May Sarton, modern American Poet. 
Albert Schweitzer, physician, humanitarian, & recipient of The Nobel Peace Prize.
Pete Seeger, songwriter, singer, and social activist.  
Rod Serling, television scriptwriter.  Winner of six Emmy awards.  
Ted Sorenson, speechwriter and aide to John F. Kennedy.  
Adlai Stevenson, Governor of Illinois; U.S. Ambassador to the U.N.  

Sylvanus Thayer, founder of the U.S. Military Academy.  
Henry David Thoreau, author of Walden Pond.  

Kurt Vonnegut, author of Slaughterhouse-Five.  
Daniel Webster, U.S. Senator; Secretary of State.  
Frank Lloyd Wright, American Architect.
Whitney Young, civil rights leader; Executive Director, National Urban League.

* Note:  Thomas Jefferson was avowedly Unitarian in his theology, but there 
was no Unitarian congregation near him in Virginia. He remained nominally
an Anglican during his life.