President: 1853-58 & 1866-70

Fr. Bernard Maguire, S.J., served as Georgetown's 25th and 27th president from 1853 to 1858 and 1866 to 1870. Georgetown adopted its blue and gray colors during Fr. Maguire's second presidency to mark unity between the students from the North and South in the aftermath of the Civil War.

President: 1928-1935

Fr. W. Coleman Nevils, S.J., served as Georgetown's 39th president from 1928-1935. Fr. Nevils's presidency featured substantial on-campus construction, though the Great Depression hurt student enrollment and hindered Nevils's vision for campus construction.

President: 1935-1942

Fr. Arthur O'Leary, S.J., served as Georgetown's 40th president from 1935-1942. Fr. O'Leary enacted significant administrative reforms and made efforts to improve alumni engagement and student life.

President: 1942-1949

Fr. Lawrence Gorman, S.J., served as Georgetown's 41st president from 1942 to 1949. Fr. Gorman's tenure as president featured substantial enrollment growth in the aftermath of World War II and some of the university's first steps toward desegregation and integration.

Fr. Edmund A. Walsh, S.J., was the founder and longtime regent of Georgetown's School of Foreign Service. Walsh spent 40 years at Georgetown and played a role in several significant international events, including relief for the Russian famine of the early 1920s and the Nuremberg trials.

Jan Karski was a longtime Georgetown professor, a Polish resistance figure during World War II, and a prominent witness to the Holocaust. Born in Poland, Karski first came to the US as a courier for the Polish government in exile during WWII and, after a brief postwar stay in Venezuela, spent the rest of his life in Washington, DC. He taught at Georgetown from 1952-1994 and died in 2000.

Frank Baker (August 22, 1841 – September 30, 1918) was professor of anatomy at the Georgetown Medical School from 1883 to 1918 and also served as Superintendent of the National Zoo.

James Ward (1813-April 27, 1895) taught at Georgetown College from 1833-1840, 1843-1850, and 1864-1868.

He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His family moved to Washington, D.C. when he was a child and he enrolled in the Washington Seminary (later known as Gonzaga College High School), a Jesuit School. He entered the Jesuit order in 1832. 

Francis Ashbury Ashford (September 19, 1841-May 19, 1883) was one of the founders of Children’s Hospital for the District of Columbia (now Children's National Hospital) and Dean of the Georgetown University Medical School, 1877-1883.

Joseph Hubley Ashton (March 11, 1836 – March 14, 1907) was a professor in the Georgetown University Law School from 1870 to 1874.

Baker, L’1892 (October 4, 1867 – January 1, 1919) lectured at the Georgetown University Law School on evidence and real estate law from circa 1902 to the time of his death.

Alexander Graham Bell (March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a teacher of the deaf, scientist, inventor who is credited with inventing and patenting the first practical telephone, and a member of the original faculty of Georgetown University's Dental School.

Joseph James Darlington (February 10, 1849- June 24, 1920), was an attorney, author of Darlington on Personal Property, and instructor in the Georgetown University Law School from 1881-1900.

James William Hamilton Lovejoy (December 15, 1824 – March 18, 1901) was a professor in the Medical School from 1851 to 1854 and again from 1880 to 1898,  and Medical School Dean from 1883 to 1898.

Wilfred Mason Barton, M’1892 (July 16, 1871 – April 3, 1930)

James S. Ruby was a professor of English at the University. He was instrumental in formally organizing the modern University Alumni Association in 1938.

Frank J. Hogan (1877 - 1944) graduated from Georgetown University School of Law in 1902 with an LL. B. degree. He worked at the firm of Sheehy & Hogan in Washington, DC.

Roland N. Harman (? – April 1989) graduated from Georgetown University in 1933. After earning his Ph.D from Yale University in 1938, he taught in Georgetown's English Department from 1950 until his retirement in 1976. He was chairman of the department from 1950 to 1959 and was instrumental in developing the University's College Honors Program.

Before returning to Georgetown to teach, he served as Lt. Commander in the United States Navy during World War II and was a member of the Occupation Forces in Japan. 

Richard Thomas Merrick (1828 - 1885) was a student of Georgetown University, a lawyer, and Georgetown faculty member.

William M. Merrick (1818 - 1889) was a graduate of Georgetown University, a lawyer, politician, judge, and faculty member at Georgetown University Law School. He received two degrees from Georgetown: an A.M. in 1831 and an honorary LL. D. in 1875. He was the son of Hon. William D. Merrick and the sibling of two other Georgetown alumni: Richard Thomas and George Carr Merrick. 

Martin F. Morris (1834 - ?) was a Georgetown alumnus and a lawyer, judge, and professor at Georgetown University Law School. Along with another Georgetown alumnus, Richard T. Merrick, he formed the law firm of Merrick & Morris in 1868.

George Ernest Hamilton (1855 – ?) was an alumnus of Georgetown University, a lawyer, and faculty member of the Law School. He received four degrees from Georgetown: an A.B. in 1872, an LL. B in 1874, an A.M. in 1882, and an honorary LL. D. in 1889.

Tallmadge Augustine Lambert (1842 - ?) was an alumnus of Georgetown University, a lawyer, and faculty member of the law school. He received his A.B. from Georgetown in 1862 and was the valedictorian of his class.

Lambert was born on December 20, 1842 to Daniel Lambert and Frederica R. (née Preuss) Lambert in Madison, Wisconsin. His family was originally from Connecticut and his ancestors had founded the town of Wilton, Connecticut. 

Michael Joseph Colbert (1865 - ?) was an alumnus of Georgetown University, a lawyer, and faculty member at Georgetown University Law School. He earned four degrees from Georgetown: an A.B. in 1883, an A.M., an LL. B in 1885, and an LL. M in 1886. 

Charles Edward Roach (1874 - 1935) was an alumnus of Georgetown University, a lawyer, and professor at Georgetown Law School. He earned three degrees from Georgetown: an A.B. in 1895, an LL. B. in 1897, and an LL. M. in 1898.

Roach was born on November 17, 1874 to William N. Roach and Mary Frances Liebermann in Washington, D.C. His father, also a Georgetown alumnus (1859), had been a United States Senator from North Dakota while his maternal grandfather had been the first chair of surgery at the Georgetown University Medical Department when it was established in 1850. 

Madeleine Albright was a longtime Georgetown SFS professor who served as US Ambassador to the United Nations and as Secretary of State during President Bill Clinton's (SFS '68) administration. Albright first joined the Georgetown faculty in 1982, departing a decade later to join the Clinton administration. She returned to the university in 2001 after serving as Secretary of State and continued to teach until her death in 2022.

Antonin Scalia was an associate justice of the Supreme Court from 1986 to 2016. Scalia was both a student and professor at Georgetown University. His father was an Italian immigrant who taught at Brooklyn College, and his mother was an elementary-school teacher. Scalia grew up in New Jersey, attending Xavier High School, a Jesuit school in Manhattan.

James Curley, SJ (1796-1889) was born in County Roscommon, Ireland and came to the U.S. in 1817. 

Pre-Georgetown Career