SUNY Plattsburgh campus in Plattsburgh, New York, during winter. Photo by Brian Kachejian.
Upstate New York has long been home to an extraordinary collection of colleges and universities, from Cornell and Syracuse to Vassar, Bard, St. Lawrence, Binghamton, SUNY campuses, and the University at Buffalo. Across the Finger Lakes, Central New York, the Hudson Valley, the Southern Tier, the North Country, and Western New York, these schools have educated future presidents, Supreme Court justices, writers, actors, musicians, broadcasters, athletes, scientists, and cultural figures whose names would eventually become known around the world.
Some of the twenty-five people on this list graduated from their Upstate New York schools. Others attended for only a few years before their careers pulled them somewhere else. A few found mentors who changed the direction of their lives, while others discovered the field that would eventually make them famous. From Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Toni Morrison at Cornell to Lou Reed and Aaron Sorkin at Syracuse, Meryl Streep at Vassar, and Al Roker at SUNY Oswego, these are twenty-five famous people whose college years included an important chapter in Upstate New York.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Long before her appointment to the United States Supreme Court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg attended Cornell University in Ithaca, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in government in 1954. Her Cornell years influenced both her legal ambitions and the precise writing style that later became a hallmark of her judicial opinions. Ginsburg frequently credited government professor Robert Cushman with encouraging her interest in law and European literature professor Vladimir Nabokov with teaching her to pay close attention to word choice and sentence structure. Cornell also changed her personal life: it was there that she met Martin Ginsburg, whom she married shortly after graduation and with whom she built a lifelong partnership.
Joe Biden
Joseph R. Biden Jr., who became the 46th president of the United States, attended Syracuse University College of Law after graduating from the University of Delaware. He earned his law degree from Syracuse in 1968. Biden’s years in Central New York preceded the political career that would come to define his life. After graduating, he returned to Delaware, worked as an attorney, served on the New Castle County Council, and in 1972 was elected to the United States Senate at the age of twenty-nine. Biden maintained a strong connection to Syracuse University throughout his career and returned numerous times for law school commencements and other university events.
Bill Nye
Before millions of children knew him as “The Science Guy,” Bill Nye studied mechanical engineering at Cornell University. He graduated in 1977 from Cornell’s engineering program, but one of the courses he remembered most was not an engineering class. During his senior year, Nye took Astronomy 102 with Carl Sagan. Nye has repeatedly credited Sagan and his Cornell education with shaping the way he thought about communicating science to the public. After graduation, Nye worked as an engineer at Boeing in Seattle before gradually moving into comedy and television, eventually creating the Emmy Award-winning educational program that made scientific concepts entertaining and accessible to a generation of young viewers.
Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison came to Cornell University after earning her undergraduate degree at Howard University. At Cornell, she completed a master’s degree in American literature in 1955. Her thesis examined the treatment of alienation in the work of Virginia Woolf and William Faulkner, two writers whose psychological and stylistic complexity made them natural subjects for the young scholar. Morrison later became an influential editor and one of the most important novelists in American literature. Books including Song of Solomon, Beloved, and Jazz eventually brought her the Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize in Literature, but her graduate study in Ithaca formed an important early chapter in that remarkable literary career.
Christopher Reeve
Christopher Reeve entered Cornell University in 1970 and quickly became deeply involved in theater while pursuing his undergraduate education. He performed in campus productions and continued developing the stage experience he had already begun before college. While still a Cornell student, Reeve was accepted into Juilliard’s highly competitive acting program, where he studied alongside Robin Williams. Cornell ultimately recognized Reeve as a member of the Class of 1974. Only a few years later, his performance as Superman in the 1978 film made him internationally famous. Reeve later became equally respected for his work as an activist and advocate after a 1995 equestrian accident left him paralyzed.
Lou Reed
Lou Reed attended Syracuse University in the early 1960s and graduated in 1964 with a degree in English. The most important academic relationship of his Syracuse years was with poet and professor Delmore Schwartz, whose writing and mentorship deeply influenced the young musician. Reed later spoke with great affection about Schwartz and credited Syracuse with giving him the opportunity to study under him. Reed played in bands while at the university and began combining literary ambition with rock and roll in a way that would later define his songwriting. After leaving Syracuse, he co-founded the Velvet Underground and eventually became one of the most influential songwriters and performers in the history of alternative rock.
Aaron Sorkin
Aaron Sorkin graduated from Syracuse University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts in 1983 after studying musical theater. He originally intended to become an actor, and his training at Syracuse centered on performance, theater, and the rhythms of spoken dialogue. His career ultimately moved in another direction when he discovered that his greatest strength was writing. The rapid-fire dialogue and carefully structured verbal exchanges that became trademarks of A Few Good Men, The West Wing, Moneyball, and The Social Network grew out of a writer with a strong theatrical foundation. Sorkin has maintained close ties to Syracuse and has supported programs that connect current students with the entertainment industry.
Bob Costas
Bob Costas arrived at Syracuse University in 1970 with the goal of becoming a sports broadcaster. While studying communications, he began working professionally at WSYR television and radio in Syracuse, giving him valuable experience while he was still a student. In 1974, before completing his degree, Costas accepted an opportunity at KMOX radio in St. Louis and left Syracuse to begin the next stage of his career. It proved to be the right decision. Costas went on to become one of America’s most celebrated sports broadcasters, covering baseball, football, basketball, the Olympics, and many of the biggest sporting events of the past half-century. Syracuse continues to claim him proudly as one of the most famous figures associated with its broadcasting tradition.
Carmelo Anthony
Carmelo Anthony spent only one season at Syracuse University, but it became one of the most memorable single years in college basketball history. As a freshman during the 2002–03 season, Anthony averaged more than twenty points and ten rebounds per game while leading Syracuse through the NCAA Tournament. He scored thirty-three points in the national semifinal against Texas and then helped Syracuse defeat Kansas for the program’s first men’s basketball national championship. Anthony was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player before leaving Syracuse for the NBA after his freshman season. His professional career lasted nearly two decades, but his championship year in Central New York remains one of the defining chapters of Syracuse sports history.
Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep graduated from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie in 1971, where she majored in drama. Vassar gave Streep a broad liberal arts education while also providing the stage experience that helped focus her ambitions on acting. She appeared in numerous college productions and discovered that the theater offered a way to combine her interests in language, performance, character, and music. After Vassar, Streep continued her training at the Yale School of Drama before beginning a professional career on the New York stage. She eventually became one of the most honored actors in film history, earning three Academy Awards and more Oscar nominations than any other performer.
Lisa Kudrow
Lisa Kudrow’s path at Vassar College looked nothing like the career that eventually made her famous. She graduated in 1985 with a degree in biology and did not spend her undergraduate years preparing for a professional acting career. Kudrow initially planned to pursue medical research and worked with her physician father after graduation on research involving headaches. Her direction changed when she became interested in performance and joined the Los Angeles improvisational group the Groundlings. That unexpected turn eventually led to television and the role of Phoebe Buffay on Friends, one of the most recognizable sitcom characters of the 1990s. Kudrow has since said that studying science at Vassar helped teach her the critical-thinking skills she continued to use as an actor and producer.
Anthony Bourdain
Anthony Bourdain began his college years at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, where he spent two years before leaving the traditional liberal arts path behind. During summers on Cape Cod, restaurant work increasingly captured his attention, and Bourdain eventually transferred his ambitions from the classroom to professional kitchens. He left Vassar and enrolled at the Culinary Institute of America in nearby Hyde Park, graduating in 1978. The Hudson Valley therefore played host to both stages of his higher education. Bourdain later became a chef, bestselling author, and one of television’s most distinctive travel storytellers through programs including No Reservations and Parts Unknown.
Chevy Chase
Before becoming one of the original stars of Saturday Night Live, Chevy Chase attended Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson. He graduated with a degree in English and spent his college years immersed in a creative environment filled with music, literature, satire, and performance. Chase also played drums in student bands during a period when future Steely Dan founders Donald Fagen and Walter Becker were part of Bard’s remarkably active music scene. The combination of musical ability, deadpan humor, physical comedy, and irreverence that later defined Chase’s television and film career was already taking shape during those Hudson Valley years.
Donald Fagen
Donald Fagen arrived at Bard College in the 1960s with strong interests in literature and jazz. While there, he met fellow student Walter Becker, beginning the partnership that eventually became Steely Dan. The two bonded over jazz, blues, rock, literature, and a shared sense of humor, playing in campus bands and developing the musical relationship that would shape their careers. Fagen graduated from Bard in 1969. The college remained part of Steely Dan mythology for years afterward, most famously through the song “My Old School,” which drew on a notorious police raid involving Bard students. Fagen and Becker went on to create some of the most sophisticated and distinctive records of the 1970s.
Paul Reiser
Paul Reiser graduated from Binghamton University in 1977 with a degree in music. During his years in the Southern Tier, Reiser became involved with student theater, including productions associated with the Hinman Little Theater. Those experiences helped reveal an interest in performance that eventually pulled him toward comedy. After college, Reiser began working the New York stand-up circuit and soon moved into acting. His breakout film role came in Barry Levinson’s Diner, followed by major television success in My Two Dads and, most famously, Mad About You, the long-running sitcom he co-created and starred in with Helen Hunt.
Al Roker
Al Roker graduated from the State University of New York at Oswego in 1976 with a degree in communications. College was not simply preparation for his broadcasting career; it was where that career actually began. While still an Oswego student, Roker landed a weekend weather job at WTVH-TV in Syracuse. Working professionally while finishing school gave him the kind of on-camera experience that could not be duplicated in a classroom. After graduation, Roker moved through television markets in the Northeast before joining NBC in New York. He eventually became one of the most recognizable figures in morning television through his decades on Today.
Wolf Blitzer
Wolf Blitzer attended the University at Buffalo and graduated in 1970 with a bachelor’s degree in history. His undergraduate years came during an era of enormous political and social change, providing a fitting academic background for someone who would eventually spend his career reporting on government, war, diplomacy, and presidential politics. Blitzer later earned a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies before beginning his journalism career with Reuters in Tel Aviv. He joined CNN in 1990 and went on to become one of the network’s most recognizable political and international news anchors.
Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas arrived at St. Lawrence University in Canton during the Great Depression with little money and enormous ambition. Born Issur Danielovitch in Amsterdam, New York, Douglas worked a variety of jobs to help pay for school, competed on the wrestling team, performed in student theater, and served as president of the student body in 1939. St. Lawrence provided him with both an education and an opportunity to develop the confidence that later defined his screen presence. After additional acting training, Douglas built one of the great careers of Hollywood’s postwar era, starring in films including Champion, Paths of Glory, Lust for Life, and Spartacus.
Viggo Mortensen
Viggo Mortensen graduated from St. Lawrence University in Canton in 1980. His liberal arts education reflected the unusually broad interests that later defined his career. Mortensen studied subjects including government and Spanish, interests that fit naturally with a childhood spent partly in South America and a lifelong fascination with languages and cultures. After graduation, he spent time abroad before eventually pursuing acting in New York. Mortensen became internationally known through his portrayal of Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings trilogy and later earned Academy Award nominations for performances including Eastern Promises, Captain Fantastic, and Green Book. He has also worked extensively as a poet, photographer, musician, painter, and publisher.
Bill Pullman
Bill Pullman graduated from SUNY Oneonta in 1975 and immersed himself in nearly every aspect of college theater while he was there. He acted, directed, worked as a technician, and learned the practical mechanics of staging productions. Pullman later earned a graduate degree and taught theater before moving fully into professional acting. His career eventually included major roles in films such as Spaceballs, While You Were Sleeping, Independence Day, and Lost Highway, along with extensive stage and television work. The foundation for that unusually versatile career was built in the theaters of SUNY Oneonta.
Taye Diggs
Taye Diggs earned his degree in musical theater from Syracuse University in 1993. Raised in Rochester, Diggs remained in Upstate New York for college, where Syracuse’s intensive theater program gave him formal training in acting, singing, and dance. Only a few years after graduation, he achieved his Broadway breakthrough as Benny in the original 1996 production of Jonathan Larson’s Rent. Diggs went on to move easily between Broadway, film, and television, appearing in How Stella Got Her Groove Back, The Best Man, Chicago, Private Practice, and All American. His Syracuse education provided the professional foundation for a career that has continued across multiple forms of entertainment.
Vanessa Williams
Vanessa Williams studied musical theater at Syracuse University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts in the early 1980s. While still associated with Syracuse, she entered the pageant world and in 1983 became the first Black woman to be crowned Miss America. Her rapidly changing professional life interrupted her undergraduate studies, but Williams eventually returned to complete the remaining requirements for her degree. Syracuse awarded her bachelor’s degree in 2008, decades after her original college years. By then she had already built a major career as a recording artist, television and film actor, and Broadway performer, making her delayed graduation an unusually satisfying conclusion to a journey that had begun on the Syracuse campus.
E.B. White
Elwyn Brooks White graduated from Cornell University in 1921 and became deeply involved with the Cornell Daily Sun during his undergraduate years, ultimately serving as editor-in-chief. Cornell also gave White one of the most important influences on his writing life: English professor William Strunk Jr. White never forgot Strunk’s insistence on clarity, economy, and direct prose. Decades later, White revised and expanded Strunk’s small writing manual into The Elements of Style, one of the most widely used books on English composition. White’s own career included decades at The New Yorker and beloved books including Charlotte’s Web, Stuart Little, and The Trumpet of the Swan.
Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut attended Cornell University from 1941 until 1943. At the urging of his family, he studied science, particularly chemistry and biochemistry, even though writing was already drawing much more of his attention. His real education, by his own later account, came through the Cornell Daily Sun, where he worked as a columnist and editor. Vonnegut left Cornell in 1943 and entered military service during World War II. His experiences as a soldier and prisoner of war later became central to Slaughterhouse-Five. Although he never earned a Cornell degree, his years in Ithaca gave him an early laboratory for the satirical voice that eventually made him one of America’s most distinctive twentieth-century novelists.
Jimmy Fallon
Jimmy Fallon attended The College of Saint Rose in Albany from 1992 until 1995, studying communications while developing the comedy and impressions that would eventually become his career. Fallon left school one semester short of graduation to pursue professional comedy in Los Angeles. The gamble paid off when he eventually joined the cast of Saturday Night Live and later became a late-night television host. His college story nevertheless received an unusual final chapter. In 2009, after completing the remaining requirements for his communications degree, Fallon returned to Saint Rose and received his bachelor’s degree at commencement, fourteen years after leaving campus for show business.
The colleges of Upstate New York did not shape these twenty-five lives in exactly the same way. Some students earned degrees and moved directly into their chosen professions. Others discovered new interests, met lifelong collaborators, found influential teachers, or left school before graduating. What they share is an educational connection to a region whose colleges and universities have had an influence far beyond New York State. From Ithaca and Syracuse to Poughkeepsie, Buffalo, Canton, Oneonta, Oswego, Binghamton, and Albany, Upstate campuses have played supporting roles in an extraordinary range of American careers.
For more stories about remarkable people connected to the region, read our 25 Famous People You Didn’t Know Were From Upstate New York.
