The list of Furman University people includes alumni, attendees, faculty, and staff of Furman University.

Presidents

James Clement Furman was elected the first president of Furman University in 1859. He served for twenty years, until 1879. Charles Manly served as president from 1859 to 1879. He was a Baptist minister. Manly Hall (built in 1956) is named after him. He is credited for allowing the campus to become more residential, in contrast to previous administrators who did not favor dormitories.Courtney L. Tollison, Furman University. Arcadia Publishing, 2004. pp.25 Andrew Philip Montague was president for five years, from 1897 to 1902. While his two predecessors were involved in Christian life prior to being presidents, Montague was dean at Columbia University. Charles Hallette Judson was acting president over a year, from 1902 to 1903. Prior to this, he was president of the Greenville Woman's College. Edwin McNeill Poteat strengthened the university in many ways during his fifteen-year presidency, from 1903 to 1918. He encouraged the recruiting of faculty with advanced degrees, including the first PhD to be hired at Furman, Sidney Ernest Bradshaw. After the previous president resigned to pursue mission work in China, Sidney Ernest Bradshaw became interim president for one year (1918–1919) while the board of trustees prepared to hire the next president. William Joseph McGlothlin, a professor of church history, came from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminar in 1919 to serve as president at Furman, where he remained in this post until 1933.Carl Wilkinson, The Life and Work of William Joseph McGlothlin, Ph.D. diss., The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1980. Bennette Eugene Geer became president in 1933. His friendship with James Buchanan Duke was instrumental to name Furman as a beneficiary of the Duke Endowment. In the terms of the endowment, Furman was referred to as "that little college located in Greenville that Ben Geer is such a fool about".Courtney L. Tollison, Furman University. Arcadia Publishing, 2004. pp.27 Geer was a graduate of Furman, and as such, the first Furman graduate to assume the presidency. Financial support progressed under Geer's presidency, echoing his own times when he was able to afford education at Furman in part thanks to living in the house of then president Manly. His presidency ended in 1938. Robert Norman Daniel was acting president during the remainder of 1938. John Laney Plyler oversaw a transformation of Furman during a long presidency of 25 years, from 1939 to 1964. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Furman, and was trained at the Harvard Law School. Under his presidency, land was bought for the new campus, and Furman moved from downtown Greenville to its current location. Gordon Williams Blackwell was president of Florida State University, and became the new president of Furman in 1965. His interest in excellence by national standards contributed to the transformation of Furman as a higher education institute of national stature, as it is still categorized today (among national liberal arts universities). His term ended after ten years, in 1976. John Edwin Johns was president of Furman from 1976 to 1994. He had a distinguished military career with several military honors (e.g., Flying Cross, Air Medal) and flew 35 combat missions in Europe during World War II aboard a B-17 aircraft. A graduate of Furman, he received a PhD in history from the University of North Carolina. After a long academic career at Stetson University culminating in its presidency, he joined Furman as president, and grew the university's endowment tenfold through capital campaigns.Obituary of John Jones. The Greenville News on Sept. 28, 2007. https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/greenvilleonline/obituary.aspx?n=john-johns&pid=140578512 David Emory Shi, a historian, author and champion of sustainability, served as the university's president from 1994 to 2010. He highlighted some of his accomplishments as "faculty salaries improved dramatically, the endowment quadrupled, the academic profile of the student body rose, and the campus benefited from more than $210 million in new construction and renovation".David E. Shi: Bio. http://davideshi.com/Bio.html Rodney A. Smolla, a nationally known lawyer, held the presidency for three years, from 2010 to 2013. For personal reasons, he stepped down from the post. He described Furman as "one of the gems of American higher education", for which he is remembered for a continued growth of application for admissions and the endowment.Ron Barnett, Smolla surprises Furman by resignation. The State, May 08, 2013. http://www.thestate.com/news/local/education/article14429777.html Carl F. Kohrt was interim president for a year, from 2013 to 2014. Elizabeth Davis became Furman's president on July 1, 2014. She came to Furman from Baylor University in Texas, where she was executive vice president and provost. The Furman Advantage was launched under her presidency.

Notable alumni

Science Brad Cox (Class of 1967) - computer scientist, creator of the Objective-C programming language Howard Davis (Class of 1959) - chemical engineer Wilton R. Earle (Class of 1923) - cell biologist Hans Einstein (Class of 1942) - foremost authority on the lung disease Valley fever Thomas T. Goldsmith (Class of 1931) - physicist who helped pioneer the invention of color television, inventor of the first video game Sandra Greer - physical chemist in the field of thermodynamics Paige Harden (Class of 2003) - psychologist and behavior geneticist, Award for Distinguished Scientific Early Career Contributions to Psychology from the American Psychological Association Valerie Horsley (Class of 1998) - biologist Frances Ligler (Class of 1973) - biochemist and bioengineer, 2017 inductee of the National Inventors Hall of Fame Julie McElrath (Class of 1973) - leading HIV immunology and vaccine researcher Earle K. Plyler (Class of 1917) - physicist and pioneer in the field of molecular spectroscopy Albert Ernest Radford (Class of 1939) - botanist, known for the Manual of the Vascular Flora of the Carolinas, the definitive flora for North Carolina and South Carolina Charles Townes (Class of 1935) - 1964 Nobel Prize in Physics winner, inventor of the maser, laid theoretical groundwork for invention of laser John B. Watson (Class of 1899) - psychologist, founder of behaviorism John H. Wotiz (Class of 1941) - organic chemist

Arts and theatre Elizabeth Bishop (Class of 1989) - mezzo-soprano with the Metropolitan Opera New York Robert Blocker (Class of 1968) - dean of the Yale School of Music and classical pianist John Bloomfield (Class of 1975) - pianist Jay Bocook (Class of 1975) - composer and arranger, work featured at 1984 Olympic Games Ben Browder (Class of 1985) - three-time Saturn Award winner for Best Actor on Television for Farscape Rudy Currence (Class of 2002) - Grammy-nominated Gospel artist, songwriter, producer Jim David (Class of 1976) - comedian on Comedy Central Presents, actor, writer Seth Gilliard (Class of 2012) - violinist Amy Grant - 6-time Grammy Award-winning singer and Christian musician Debbie Hughes (Class of 1981) - artist and illustrator Victoria Jackson - actress and comedian, former cast member of NBC Saturday Night Live Robert Joel (Class of 1965) - actor in the early openly gay film A Very Natural Thing Keith Lockhart (Class of 1981) - conductor of the Boston Pops Emile Pandolfi (Class of 1968) - pianist Bear Rinehart (Class of 2003) - lead vocalist of Needtobreathe, a Grammy-nominated and six-time GMA Dove Award-winning modern rock band Ginny Ruffner - glass artist Sintax the Terrific (Class of 1998) - Christian hip hop artist and founder of Deepspace5 Virginia Uldrick (Class of 1951) - music and drama teacher, founder and first president of the South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts & Humanities Frankie Welch - fashion designer Donald Reid Womack (Class of 1988) - composer and professor, University of Hawaii

Academics, writers, journalists, and publishers Eleanor Beardsley (Class of 1986) - journalist, NPR correspondent from France Furman Bisher - sports writer and columnist Maurice Bloomfield (Class of 1877) - Austrian-born U.S. philologist and Sanskrit scholar Tomiko Brown-Nagin (Class of 1992) - legal historian and professor at Harvard Law School and Harvard University Vernon Burton (Class of 1969) - Southern historian and author of Age of Lincoln Betsy Byars - children's author, winner of Newbery Medal, National Book Award, Edgar Award and Regina Medal Marshall Frady (Class of 1963) - Emmy Award-winning journalist and biographer Lois Gladys Leppard (Class of 1946) - author of the Mandie children's novels John Matthews Manly (M.A. Class of 1884) - philologist and professor of English literature and philology at the University of Chicago Raven I. McDavid Jr. (Class of 1931) - linguist, dialectologist Edmund Outslay (Class of 1974) - finance author and Deloitte/Michael Licata Endowed Professor of Taxation at Michigan State University Bennie Lee Sinclair (Class of 1961) - poet, novelist, and short story writer; South Carolina Poet Laureate 1986–2000; Pulitzer Prize nominee George Singleton (Class of 1980) - novelist Cecil Staton (Class of 1980) - politician, member of the Georgia Senate and chancellor of East Carolina University Allie Beth Stuckey (Class of 2014) - conservative commentator with BlazeTV and Conservative Review, frequent guest on Fox News Jack Sullivan - literary scholar, musicologist and author Phyllis Tickle (M.A. Class of 1961) - author of spirituality and religion works Joshua Treviño (Class of 1997) - political commentator Angela L. Walker Franklin (Class of 1981) - president of Des Moines University Robert Whitlow (Class of 1976) - author and filmmaker George S. Wise - sociologist, first president of Tel Aviv University

Business Ravenel B. Curry III (Class of 1963) - businessman and philanthropist, founder and president of Eagle Capital Management David C. Garrett, Jr. (Class of 1942) - former CEO of Delta Air Lines John D. Hollingsworth - businessman, textile machinery inventor, and philanthropist Sanjay Kumar - former CEO of Computer Associates, sentenced to 12 years in prison for his role in a massive accounting fraud Herman Lay - founder of Lay's, later creating the largest-selling snack food company in the US, the Frito-Lay corporation Kathryn Petralia (Class of 1992) - founder of Kabbage Paula Wallace (Class of 1970) - founder of Savannah College of Art and Design

Politics and law Robert T. Ashmore (Class of 1927) - United States representative from South Carolina Julius H. Baggett (Class of 1948) - member of the South Carolina House of Representatives 1967–1968 and 1970–1974 Ibra Charles Blackwood - former governor of South Carolina Joseph R. Bryson - US congressman from South Carolina's 4th District Maurice G. Burnside (Class of 1926) - United States representative from West Virginia Richard Cash (Class of 1982) - member of the South Carolina Senate Judy Clarke (Class of 1974) - criminal defense attorney who has represented high-profile defendants such as Ted Kaczynski ("The Unabomber"), Eric Robert Rudolph, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and Zacarias Moussaoui Wes Climer (Class of 2006) - member of the South Carolina Senate Neal Collins (Class of 2004) - member of the South Carolina House of Representatives Richard Cullen (Class of 1971) - former attorney general of Virginia and high-profile lawyer Thomas T. Cullen (Class of 2000) - United States district judge Tom Davis (Class of 1982) - South Carolina state senator and chief of staff to Governor Mark Sanford William Dimitrouleas (Class of 1973) - United States district judge