Unfortunately, for many, the first famous Hamilton alumni who comes to mind (if you can even recall one) is Ezra Pound. While Pound was certainty an important modernist writer and perhaps one of the most influential poets of the 20th century, he also committed treason, sided with the Nazis, and used his talents to benefit Benito Mussolini. So, let’s take a look at some slightly less well known, but far more ethical alumni who are making significant positive contributions to the world.
1. Mary Bonauto (1983)
A massively influential civil rights lawyer, Mary Bonauto certainty makes one proud to go to Hamilton. In 2015, she was one of three attorneys to argue before the US supreme court in Obergefell v. Hodges. The plaintiff Obergefell wanted to list himself as the surviving spouse on his late husband’s death certificate. This case was by far one of the most important in modern American history and saw the supreme court rule 5-4 that the right to marry was guaranteed to gay couples by the constitution. She also participated in court challenges to DOMA and worked on the Windsor Case. For her exceptional contributions she has been awarded a MacArthur Fellowship Award.
2. Matthew Zeller (2004)
This Magna Cum Laude graduate is a veteran of the war in Afghanistan and is well known for his work bringing over Afghani translators who served the US during the conflict. He refers to his own translator, Shinwari, as his “honorary brother,” and “guardian angel,” and during a lecture last year to Hamilton students, both men talked about their experiences during the war. After the war, however, Zeller went home and Shinwari was left to fend for himself without the protection of the US government. Fearing for his life, Shinwari reached out to Zeller prompting the Hamilton grad to create intense media pressure on the US government which eventually resulted in Shinwari and his family being granted Visas. Now the men work together to get visas for other foreign translators who served the US but are now in danger in their home countries.
3. Paul Greengard (1958)
Dr. Greengard is a neuroscientist who was awarded the Noble Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2000 for his work regarding signal transduction in the nervous system. He and his team were particularly interested in second messenger cascades and he worked on experiments which showed an increase in cyclic AMP inside cells after dopamine interacted with receptors on the cell membrane of a neuron. With the money Dr. Greengard received from his Nobel Prize, he funded the Pearl Meister Greengard Prize, named after his mother, which is awarded to female scientists to fight against discrimination within the scientific community.
Pictures: Bonauto, Zeller and Shinwari, Greengard