This list of notable people associated with Bates College includes matriculating students, alumni, attendees, faculty, trustees, and honorary degree recipients of Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. Members of the Bates community are known as "Batesies" or bobcats. This list also includes students of the affiliated Maine State Seminary, Nichols Latin School, and Cobb Divinity School. In 1915, George Colby Chase, the second president of the college, opted that the college include former students (those who did not complete the full four year course of study) as alumni in "appreciation of their loyalty".[1] Throughout its history, Bates has been the fictional alma mater of various characters in American popular culture. Notable fictional works to feature the college include Ally McBeal (1997), The Sopranos (1999), and The Simpsons (2015). As of 2015[update], there are 24,000 Bates College alumni.[2] Affiliates of the college include 86 Fulbright Scholars,[3] 22 Watson Fellows,[4] and 5 Rhodes Scholars.[5]
As of November 2018[update], the college counts 12 members of the United States Congress–2 Senators and 10 members of the House of Representatives–among its alumni. In state government, Bates alumni have led all three political branches in Maine, graduating two Chief Justices of the Maine Supreme Court, two Maine Governors, and multiple leaders of both state houses. Bates has graduated 12 Olympians, with the most recent alumni competing in the 2018 Winter Olympics. More than 20 universities have been led by Bates alumni as of July 2016.
This list uses the following notation:
New Hampshire House of Representatives Bates College.