Notable Unitarians

The following list shows a sample of notable Unitarians, Universalists and Unitarian Universalists. 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)
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
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
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
Herman Melville 1819-1891 Author of Moby Dick
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
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 1919-2014 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
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