Notable Buffs
Meet the notable Buffs whose achievements helped shape CU Boulder’s past and inspire its future. Explore the stories of alumni, faculty, staff and students who left a lasting mark on the university and beyond.
Jump to an Era
1876 to 1892 The Founding Era
1878
Mary Rippon
In January 1878, Mary Rippon became CU’s first female professor and was among America’s first female professors to teach at a state university. For over 30 years, Rippon worked for CU, gaining respect and admiration from students, faculty and the Boulder community.
1883
Timothy William Stanton
Stanton was one of just two students to graduate in 1883, and later earning a master’s degree in science from CU in 1894. After receiving a doctorate degree from Columbian University (now George Washington University), his lifelong habit of searching for geological clues led him to a 46-year career with the U.S. Geological Survey, where he became one of the nation’s leading experts on Cretaceous invertebrates.
1892 to 1914 Expanding Horizons
1895
Fred Folsom
As Colorado’s second official head football coach, Fred Folsom's 15 coaching seasons remain a school record, and his 77 wins stood as the most in school history for 78 years. In 1944, Colorado Stadium, home of the Buffaloes football team, was renamed Folsom Field in his honor.
1911
Adele “Della” Parker
Adele “Della” Parker was the first Black woman to enroll at Colorado Law School, beginning classes in October 1911. Only ten women before her and her fellow first-year classmate Beryl Mary Bonner had enrolled in Colorado Law School since its beginning in 1892.
1914 to 1939 The Great War, Depression and New Deal
1917
President George Norlin
George Norlin became president of CU in 1917. During his tenure, he oversaw the implementation of Charles Klauder’s iconic architectural designs for the campus, watched the student population triple and completed a $4 million building program despite the troubles of the Great Depression, according to the CU Heritage Center.
1918
Lucile Berkeley Buchanan
Lucile Berkeley Buchanan is known as the first Black woman to graduate from CU, earning a degree in German in 1918. She became the first in her family to graduate from not one but two of the state’s top institutions of higher education.
1938
Byron “Whizzer” White
Byron White, who graduated in 1938 as the student body president, class valedictorian and an all-American athlete, was one of the greatest students in the history of CU Boulder.
1940s
Glenn Miller
Alton Glenn Miller, an American big band leader and trombonist, attended CU Boulder for three semesters before leaving to pursue music. Miller earned the first gold record in 1942 for selling over one million copies of “Chattanooga Choo Choo” and amassed more than 30 gold records.
1954 to 1974 Civil Rights and Social Change
1946
Mildred and Charles Nilon
Charles H. Nilon was the first Black faculty member hired in the English Department in the fall of 1956. In 1962, the university hired Mildred Nilon, who was CU’s first Black librarian.
1969
Clarence “Skip” Ellis
Clarence “Skip” Ellis was a pioneering computer scientist and educator whose work shaped the field of collaborative computing. Ellis joined the University of Colorado Boulder faculty in 1972. During his tenure, he led research in human-centered computing, directed the Collaboration Technology Research Group, and contributed to the Systems Software Lab and the Institute for Cognitive Science.
1974 to 1996 Modernization, Growth and Technological Advancements
1978
Ellison Onizuka
Ellison Onizuka was an American astronaut and U.S. Air Force officer who became a trailblazer in space exploration. Born in Kealakekua, Hawaii, Onizuka graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in aerospace engineering in 1969.
1980s
Marvin Caruthers
Marvin H. Caruthers, a distinguished professor of chemistry and biochemistry at CU Boulder, transformed modern chemical biology through his pioneering work on the chemical synthesis of DNA and RNA.
1989
Tom Cech
In 1989, Distinguished Professor Tom Cech became the first CU Boulder faculty member to receive the Nobel Prize. His Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded for his discovery that RNA can act as a biological catalyst, not just a carrier of genetic information.
1996 to 2016 The New Millennium
2001
Carl Wieman & Eric Cornell
Carl Wieman and Eric Cornell transformed modern physics through their groundbreaking work at CU Boulder and JILA. In 1995, the two researchers led the team that created the world’s first Bose-Einstein condensate, a new state of matter predicted decades earlier by Albert Einstein and Satyendra Nath Bose.
2012
Elizabeth Fenn
Professor Fenn won the Pulitzer Prize for history for her book Encounters at the Heart of the World: A History of the Mandan People. Pulitzer judges called her work “an engrossing, original narrative showing the Mandans, a Native American tribe in the Dakotas, as a people with history.”