University of Arizona alumni

Francis Richard Scobee (May 19, 1939 – January 28, 1986) was an American pilot, engineer, and astronaut. He was killed while commanding the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1986, which suffered catastrophic booster failure during launch of the STS-51-L mission.Scobee held a Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering, graduating from the University of Arizona in 1965. He was a reciprocating engine mechanic for the United States Air Force and served as a combat aviator in the Vietnam War.
Selected for NASA Astronaut Corps in January 1978, Scobee completed his training in August 1979. While awaiting his first orbital spaceflight mission, Scobee served as an instructor pilot for the Shuttle's 747 carrier aircraft. In April 1984, he piloted Challenger mission STS-41-C, which successfully deployed one satellite and repaired another.

Jones Osborn (October 22, 1921 – November 6, 2014) was an American politician, newspaper editor, and publisher.
Born in Bicknell, Indiana, Jones moved with his parents to Yuma, Arizona, where they bought two local daily newspapers. Jones learned the printing business and eventually became editor and publisher of the Yuma Daily Sun. He went to the University of Arizona and then served in the United States Army during World War II. In 1971, Jones served in the Arizona House of Representatives as a Democrat, and then served in the Arizona State Senate from 1973 until 1993. After he retired from the legislature, Osborn served on the Arizona Judicial Commission. He also served on the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education and was chairman of the Commission. He died in Yuma.

Robert E. Riggs (1927–2014) held the Guy Anderson chair of law in the J. Reuben Clark Law School of Brigham Young University (BYU).
Riggs was born in Mesa, Arizona and raised as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was a participating member of that Church throughout his life.
Riggs graduated from Mesa Union High School in 1945. Later that year he was drafted into the United States military as World War II was about to conclude. He was stationed for a time in Korea, after the end of World War II and before the Korean War began. He then served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the British Isles. For the second year of his two year mission he was the editor of the Millennial Star. In September 1949 Riggs married Hazel Dawn MacDonald in the Mesa Arizona Temple. They had seven children.
Riggs received a bachelors and master's degree in political science from the University of Arizona. He then earned a PhD in political science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign while also spending a year at the University of Oxford on a Rotary Foundation Fellowship.
From 1955 to 1960 Riggs was a professor of political science at BYU. During this time he took a year leave and served as a Rockefeller Research Fellow in International Organization at Columbia University. From 1960 to 1963 Riggs was a reaerch associate at the University of Arizona while also earning a law degree there. He was then a lawyer in private practice in Arizona very briefly. He then went to Minnesota where he was a professor in the political science department at the University of Minnesota from 1964 to 1975. He served as mayor of Golden Valley, Minnesota for two terms. He also ran as a Democrat in the Minnesota 3rd Congressional District in 1974, which election he lost.
In 1975 Riggs joined the faculty of the BYU Law School, where he remained until 1992. From 1993 to 1994 he and his wife served as missionaries for the Church at the Mesa Arizona Temple Visitors Center.

Thomas Tang (January 11, 1922 – July 18, 1995) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from 1977 to 1995. Tang was the first American of Chinese descent to become a U.S. federal judge.

Harold Jon "Jack" Hicks was a sculptor, who worked in the later part of the twentieth century. He was trained in ceramics and photography but excelled in metal sculpture.

Alice Percilla Chancellor (September 2, 1912 – June 22, 1985) was an American electronics engineer, recipient of the 1970 Outstanding Handicapped Federal Employee of the Year award.

Richard Overton Hunziker (6 July 1916 – 29 May 1971) was a decorated World War II fighter pilot and later United States Air Force major general. He played a significant role in the Cold War and commanded operations at Project Crested Ice.

William Andrew Holohan (July 1, 1928 – July 23, 2010) was a justice of the Arizona Supreme Court, serving from 1972 until his retirement in 1989. Holohan served as chief justice from 1982 to 1987.Holohan served as an Assistant United States Attorney to then–United States Attorney Jack D. H. Hays. Holohan was considered conservative in his legal and political views but progressive in judicial reform.
In 1988, Holohan wrote the opinion of the court in Green v. Osborne, a 4–1 decision that canceled a recall election for Evan Mecham because Mecham already had been impeached and removed as governor." Other notable opinions include a "1982 reversal of a lower-court ruling that declared Arizona Downs' lease at Turf Paradise to be unconstitutional and a violation of antitrust laws."

Rodolfo O. de la Garza (August 17, 1942 – August 5, 2019) was an American political scientist.
De la Garza was born in Tucson, Arizona, on August 17, 1942. He attended Tucson High School, graduating in 1960 and earned a doctorate from the University of Arizona in 1972. He then worked for the United States Agency for International Development in South America. De la Garza began his teaching career at the University of Texas at El Paso, and later moved to the University of Texas at Austin, where he was Mike Hogg Professor of Community Affairs. In 2001, de la Garza joined the Columbia University faculty. At Columbia, he was appointed Eaton Professor of Administrative Law and Municipal Science. De la Garza died in New York City on August 5, 2019.

Robert McBride (February 20, 1911 – July 1, 2007) was an American composer and instrumentalist.