- George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is the forty-third and current President of the United States of America. Originally inaugurated on January 20, 2001, Bush was elected president in the 2000 presidential election and re-elected in the 2004 presidential election. He previously served as the forty-sixth Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000, and is the eldest son of former United States president George H. W. Bush.
- John Kerry
John Kerry is a senator from Massachusetts. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for president in 2004.
- George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush was the forty-first President of the United States, serving from 1989 to 1993. Before his presidency, Bush was the forty-third Vice President of the United States in the administration of Ronald Reagan. He has also served as the member of the United States House of Representatives for the 7th district of Texas (1967–1971), the United States Ambassador to the United Nations (1971–1973), …
- George Herbert Walker
George Herbert "Bert" Walker (June 11, 1875 - June 24, 1953) was a wealthy American banker and businessman. His daughter Dorothy married Prescott Bush, making him the grandfather (and namesake) of President George H. W. Bush and the great-grandfather of current President George W. Bush. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Walker was the youngest son of David Davis Walker, a dry goods merchant from Bloomington, Illinois, and Martha Adela Beaky.
- William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft (September 15 1857 - March 8 1930) was an American politician, the twenty-seventh President of the United States, the tenth Chief Justice of the United States, a leader of the progressive conservative wing of the Republican Party in the early 20th century, a pioneer in international arbitration and staunch advocate of world peace verging on pacifism, and scion of the leading political family in Ohio.
- Henry Luce
Henry Robinson Luce (pronounced like "loose") (April 3, 1898 - February 28, 1967) was an influential American publisher.
- McGeorge Bundy
McGeorge "Mac" Bundy was United States National Security Advisor to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson from 1961–1966, and was president of the Ford Foundation from 1966–1979.
- Alphonso Taft
Alphonso Taft (November 5, 1810 - May 21, 1891) was the Attorney General and Secretary of War under President Ulysses S. Grant and the founder of an American political dynasty. Born in Townshend, Vermont, he graduated from Yale College in 1833, where he also was a tutor. At Yale, he and his classmate William Huntington Russell cofounded Skull and Bones, the preeminent undergraduate club. He subsequently studied law at the Yale Law School, …
- William Huntington Russell
William Huntington Russell William Huntington Russell (12 August 1809, Middletown, Connecticut - 19 May 1885, New Haven, Connecticut) was co-founder of Skull and Bones along with Alphonso Taft. He was a descendant of the most noted New England families, including Pierpont, Hooker, Bingham, and Willet. William was a cadet at the United States Military Academy, where he was taught under strict military discipline.
- Prescott Sheldon Bush
Prescott Sheldon Bush was a United States Senator from Connecticut and a Wall Street executive banker with Brown Brothers Harriman. He was the father of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush and the grandfather of current President George W. Bush.
- Harold Stanley
Harold Stanley (1885 - 1963) was an American businessman and one of the founders of Morgan Stanley in 1935. He ran Morgan Stanley until 1955. Stanley was born in Massachusetts. He went to the Hotchkiss School, and later attended Yale University and was a member of Skull and Bones.
- Robert A. Lovett
Robert Abercrombie Lovett (14 September 1895 - 7 May 1986) was the fourth United States Secretary of Defense, serving in the cabinet of President Harry S. Truman from 1951 to 1953 and in this capacity, directed the Korean War. He was promoted to the position from deputy secretary of defense.
- Jonathan Bush
Jonathan James Bush (born May 6,1931), an American banker, a brother of President George H. W. Bush, and an uncle of President George W. Bush.
- William Bundy
William Putnam "Bill" Bundy was a member of the CIA and foreign affairs advisor to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. He had a key role in planning the Vietnam War. After leaving government service he became a historian.
- Samuel Russell
Samuel Wadsworth Russell, born in Middletown, Connecticut (August 25,1789 - 1862) was an American entrepreneur and trader, and founder of Russell & Company, the largest and most important American trading house in China from 1842 to its closing in 1891.
- W. Averell Harriman
William Averell Harriman (November 15 1891 - July 26 1986) was an American Democratic Party politician, businessman and diplomat. He was the son of railroad baron E. H. Harriman. He served as Secretary of Commerce under President Truman and later as Governor of New York. He was a candidate for the Democratic Presidential Nomination in 1952, and again in 1956 when he was endorsed by President Truman but lost to Adlai Stevenson.
- Daniel Coit Gilman
Daniel Coit Gilman was an American educator. Born in Norwich, Connecticut, Gilman graduated from Yale College in 1852 with a degree in geography. At Yale he was a classmate of Andrew Dickson White, who would later serve as first president of Cornell University. The two were members of the Skull and Bones secret society, and would remain close friends. After serving as attaché of the United States legation at St. Petersburg, Russia from 1853 to 1855, …
- Winston Lord
Winston Lord is a United States diplomat and administrator. He served as the president of the Council on Foreign Relations between 1977 and 1985. Lord was a key figure in the restoration of relations between the United States and China in 1972. From 1969–73, as a member of the National Security Council’s planning staff, he was an aide to National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger, accompanying him on his secret trip to Beijing in 1971.
- Potter Stewart
Potter Stewart (January 23 1915 - December 7 1985) was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
- Artemus Gates
Artemus Gates (November 3, 1895-June 14, 1976) was a great grandson of lumber baron Chancy Lamb and a grandson of lumber baron Artemus Lamb. He grew up at "Oakhurst" in Clinton, Iowa. He was an American businessman, naval aviator, and Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Air in charge of naval aviation efforts in World War II (7 December 1941 - 30 June 1945), and also briefly Undersecretary of the Navy (3 July 1945--2 September 1945).
- Payne Whitney
William Payne Whitney (March 20, 1876 - May 25, 1927) was a wealthy American businessman and member of the influential Whitney family. The son of William C. Whitney and Flora Payne, and younger brother to Harry, Payne Whitney attended Groton School and then Yale University. There, he was a member of Skull & Bones, Delta Kappa Epsilon, and captained the Yale rowing team. In later years, he helped finance the team, including donating funds to build a dormitory for the crew.
- E. Roland Harriman
E. Roland Harriman (born Edward Roland Noel Harriman on December 24 1895 in New York City - died on February 16 1978 in Arden, New York) was a financier and philanthropist. For those who were very close to him, his nickname was "Bunny". He was the youngest of five surviving children of Mary Williamson Averell and Edward Henry Harriman, a financier and executive of the Union Pacific Railroad and the Southern Pacific Railroad.
- Victor Ashe
Victor Henderson Ashe II (born January 1, 1945) is the current United States Ambassador to Poland. From 1988 to 2003, he was mayor of Knoxville, Tennessee. Ashe is a Republican.
- William Sloane Coffin
Rev. William Sloane Coffin, Jr. was a liberal Christian clergyman and long-time peace activist with international stature. He was ordained in the Presbyterian church and later received ministerial standing in the United Church of Christ. In his younger days he was a superb athlete, a highly talented pianist, a CIA agent, and later chaplain of Yale University, …
- Harry Payne Whitney
Harry Payne Whitney (April 29 1872 - October 26 1930) was an American businessman, thoroughbred horsebreeder, and member of the prominent Whitney family. Born in New York City, he was the eldest son of the very wealthy businessman and United States Secretary of the Navy, William C. Whitney and brother to William Payne Whitney. Harry Payne Whitney was sent to study at Groton School in Groton, Massachusetts then attended Yale University, graduating with a law degree in 1894.
- Alfred Cowles
Alfred Cowles (15 September 1891, 28 December 1984) was an American economist, businessman and founder of the Cowles Commission. He graduated from Yale in 1913. Cowles's primary concern in 1932 was to elevate economics into a more precise science using mathematical and statistical techniques. Alfred Cowles was Fellow and Treasurer of the Econometric Society.
- Pierre Jay
Pierre Jay was the first chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He graduated from Yale University in 1892, and was a member of Skull and Bones, one of the best known of the secret societies based at Yale University. In 1908, as Massachusetts banking commissioner, he, along with Bostonian business man and philanthropist Edward Filene, helped organize public hearings on creating credit union legislation in Massachusetts, …
- Gifford Pinchot
Gifford Bryce Pinchot was the first Chief of the United States Forest Service (1905–1910) and the Republican Governor of Pennsylvania (1923–1927, 1931–1935).
- Dana Milbank
Dana T. Milbank (born 27 April, 1968) is an American political reporter for "The Washington Post". He is a graduate of Yale University, where he became a member of the secretive society Skull and Bones. Milbank covered the 2000 US Presidential election and the 2004 US Presidential election. He also covered US President George W. Bush's first term in office.
- Archibald MacLeish
Archibald MacLeish (May 7, 1892 - April 20, 1982) was an American poet, writer and the Librarian of Congress. He is associated with the modernist school of poetry. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize three times.
- Evan G. Galbraith
Evan Griffith Galbraith (born 1928) was the United States Ambassador to France from 1981 to 1985. Galbraith was born in Toledo, Ohio. He is a graduate of Yale University (class of 1950, member of Skull & Bones) and Harvard Law School. He served on active duty in the Navy from 1953 to 1957, attached to the Central Intelligence Agency. From 1960 to 1961, he was the confidential assistant to the Secretary of Commerce.
- Robert Taft
Robert Alphonso Taft (September 8, 1889 - July 31, 1953), of the Taft political family of Ohio, was a Republican United States Senator and as a prominent conservative spokesman was the leading opponent of the New Deal in the Senate from 1939 to 1953. He led the successful effort by the Conservative coalition to curb the power of labor unions. He failed in his quest to win the Presidential nomination of the candidate of the Republican Party in 1940, 1948 and 1952.
- Charles Seymour
Charles Seymour (January 1 1885 - August 11 1963) was an American historian and President of Yale University from 1937 to 1951. He was born in New Haven, Connecticut to Thomas Day Seymour. His grandparents Nathan Perkins Seymour was the great-great grandson of Yale President Thomas Clap, and Elizabeth Day was the niece of Yale President Jeremiah Day. He was awarded a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Cambridge in 1904, and a separate B.A. from Yale in 1908, …
- Don Schollander
Donald ("Don") Arthur Schollander (born April 30, 1946) is an American former swimmer. He was born in Charlotte, North Carolina and raised in Lake Oswego, Oregon. Don learned to swim under Newt Perry's guidance when he was 8 years old. He started age-group swimming very young and was already a super-star type at age 11. As a teenager in 1962 he moved to Santa Clara, California to train under swim coach George Haines.
- John Chafee
John Lester Hubbard Chafee (October 22 1922 - October 24 1999) was an American politician. He served as an officer in the United States Marine Corps, as Governor of Rhode Island, as the Secretary of the Navy, and as a United States Senator.
- Andrew Dickson White
Andrew Dickson White (November 7 1832 - November 4 1918) was a U.S. diplomat, author, and educator, best known as the co-founder of Cornell University. White was born in Homer, New York. After spending one year at Hobart College (then known as Geneva College), he transferred to Yale University. At Yale, he was a classmate of Daniel Coit Gilman, who would later serve as first president of Johns Hopkins University. The two were members of the Skull and Bones secret society, …
- William H. Donaldson
William Henry Donaldson (born June 2, 1931 in Buffalo, New York) is a former chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Donaldson attended both Yale University (B.A. 1953) and Harvard University (M.B.A. 1958). While he was a senior at Yale, he joined its Skull and Bones secret society. Donaldson returned to Yale and founded the Yale School of Management where he served as dean and professor of management studies.
- William Collins Whitney
William Collins Whitney (July 5, 1841 - February 2, 1904) was an American political leader and financier and founder of the prominent Whitney family. A conservative reformer, he was considered a Bourbon Democrat. William Whitney was born at Conway, Massachusetts of Puritan stock. His father was General James S.Whitney and his mother Laurinda Collins. William had a well known older brother, industrialist, Henry Melville Whitney (1839-1923), …
- David McCullough
David Gaub McCullough (born July 7, 1933) is an American historian and bestselling author. A two-time winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, he is widely referred to as a "master of the art of narrative history." Among his most well-known books are "The Path Between the Seas", "Truman", "John Adams", and his most recent volume, "1776" (a "New York Times" and Amazon bestseller).
- Briton Hadden
Briton Hadden (February 18, 1898 - February 27, 1929) was the co-founder of Time Magazine with his Yale classmate Henry Luce. Hadden got his start in newspaper writing at the Hotchkiss Record, a newspaper at the Hotchkiss prep school. At Yale, Hadden was elected to the staff of the Yale Daily News and later served as the paper's chairman twice (1917-1918 and 1919-1920). Luce was the News' managing editor both times.