Notable Unitarians
The following list shows a sample of notable Unitarians, Universalists and Unitarian Universalists. Click on the person’s name to find out more.
Note that for privacy reasons, we have listed people who are alive only if they have publically spoken about their faith.
| John Adams | 1735-1826 | President of the United States |
| John Quincy Adams | 1767-1848 | President of the United States |
| Louisa May Alcott | 1832-1888 | Abolitionist, Author of Little Women |
| Horatio Alger | 1832-1899 | Unitarian Minister, Author of Juvenile Fiction |
| Susan B. Anthony | 1820-1906 | Activist, Publisher |
| P. T. Barnum | 1810-1891 | Showman |
| Béla Bartók | 1881-1945 | Hungarian Composer |
| Clara Barton | 1821-1912 | Founder of the American Red Cross |
| Sir Tim Berners-Lee | b. 1955 | Physicist, Inventor of the World Wide Web |
| Robert Burns | 1759-1796 | National Poet of Scotland |
| Samuel Taylor Coleridge | 1772-1834 | Poet |
| James Coyne | 1910-2012 | Governor of the Bank of Canada (1955-1961); Member of this congregation in the 1960’s |
| e. e. cummings | 1894-1962 | poet |
| William Dennison | 1905-1981 | Mayor of Toronto (1966-1972) |
| Charles Dickens | 1812-1870 | Author of A Christmas Carol and Oliver Twist |
| Dorothea Dix | 1802-1887 | Teacher, Children’s Author, Mental Health Care Advocate |
| Ralph Waldo Emerson | 1803-1882 | Unitarian Minister, Lecturer, Essayist, Poet |
| Lloyd Francis | 1920-2007 | MP for Ottawa Area Ridings, Parliamentary Speaker |
| Robert Fulghum | b. 1937 | Unitarian Minister, Author of All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten |
| Buckminster Fuller | 1895-1983 | Engineer, Designer, Inventor, Futurist |
| Margaret Fuller | 1810-1850 | Transcendentalist, Reformer, Author of Woman in the Nineteenth Century |
| Elizabeth Gaskell | 1810-1865 | Author of Cranford, North and South |
| Edvard Grieg | 1843-1907 | Norwegian Composer |
| Edmund Halley | 1656-1742 | Astronomer, Discoverer of Halley’s comet |
| Nathaniel Hawthorne | 1804-1864 | Author of The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables |
| Dr. Lotta Hitschmanova | 1909-1990 | Canadian Humanitarian, Founder of USC Canada |
| Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. | 1841-1945 | Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court |
| Julia Ward Howe | 1819-1910 | Abolitionist, Social Activist, Poet |
| Bruce Hyer | b. 1946 | MP for Thunder Bay-Superior North (since 2008) |
| Thomas Jefferson | 1743-1826 | President of the United States, Author of U.S. Declaration of Independence |
| Margaret Laurence | 1926-1987 | Canadian Author of The Stone Angel and The Diviners |
| Arthur Lismer | 1885-1969 | Toronto Painter, Member of the Group of Seven |
| Dorothy Livesay | 1909-1996 | Canadian Poet |
| Henry Wadsworth Longfellow | 1807-1882 | Poet, Educator |
| Harriet Martineau | 1802-1876 | Journalist and Writer, Educator, Free Trade Advocate |
| Herman Melville | 1819-1891 | Author of Moby Dick |
| Maria Mitchell | 1818-1889 | First U.S. Woman Astronomer |
| John Molson | 1763-1836 | Brewer, Member of Legislative Council of Lower Canada |
| Robert Munsch | b. 1945 | Canadian Author of Love You Forever and The Paper Bag Princess |
| Paul Newman | 1925-2008 | Actor |
| Florence Nightingale | 1820-1910 | Nurse, Humanitarian, Statistician, Inventor of the Pie Chart |
| Francis Parkman | 1823-1893 | Historian, Horticulturist, Author of The Oregon Trail |
| Linus Pauling | 1901-1994 | Chemist, Peace Activist, Double Nobel Laureate |
| Randy Pausch | 1960-2008 | Computer Science Professor at Carnegie Mellon University, Author of The Last Lecture |
| Sylvia Plath | 1932-1963 | Poet, Author of The Bell Jar |
| Beatrix Potter | 1866-1943 | Conservationist, Author of The Tale of Peter Rabbit |
| Joseph Priestley | 1733-1804 | Natural Philosopher, Political Theorist |
| Christopher Reeve | 1952-2004 | Actor |
| May Sarton | 1912-1995 | Poet, Author of Coming Into Eighty and Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing |
| Alyson Schafer | Toronto Parenting Expert, TV Host, Author of Ain’t Misbehavin, Honey, I Wrecked The Kids, and Breaking the Good Mom Myth | |
| Pete Seeger | b. 1919 | Musician, Humanitarian |
| Rod Serling | 1924-1975 | Screenwriter, TV Producer |
| Michael Servetus | 1511-1553 | Theologian, Unitarian Martyr |
| Adlai Stevenson | 1900-1965 | Politician, Diplomat, U.S. Presidential Candidate |
| Emily Stowe | 1813-1903 | Toronto Physician, Suffragette, First Woman Doctor in Canada |
| William Howard Taft | 1857-1930 | President of the United States, President of the National Conference of Unitarian and Other Liberal Christian Churches |
| Henry David Thoreau | 1817-1862 | Author, Poet, Abolitionist, Naturalist |
| Luigi Von Kunits | 1870-1931 | Founder and Conductor of the Toronto Symphony, Violinist |
| Kurt Vonnegut | 1922-2007 | Author of Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast of Champions |
| Daniel Webster | 1782-1852 | Statesman |
| Josiah Wedgwood | 1730-1795 | Potter |
| Walt Whitman | 1819-1892 | Poet, Humanist |
| Mary Wollstonecraft | 1759-1797 | Woman’s Rights Advocate, Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman |
| Dr. Joseph Workman | 1805-1894 | Toronto Psychiatrist, Educator, Mental Health Advocate, Co-Founder of Unitarian Congregation in Toronto |
| Frank Lloyd Wright | 1867-1959 | Architect |
| N.C. Wyeth | 1882-1945 | Illustrator |
For more notable UUs, please see these other lists:
- Dictionary of UU Biography (from UUA.org) (from UU Historical Society)
- Famous UUs (from Conejo Valley UU Fellowship)
- Harvard Square Library
- Wikipedia
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