Iowa State University alumni

Thomas Richard Harkin (born November 19, 1939) is an American lawyer, author, and politician who served as a United States senator from Iowa from 1985 to 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously was the U.S. representative for Iowa's 5th congressional district from 1975 to 1985. He is the longest-serving senator to spend the entire tenure as a state's junior senator.
Born in Cumming, Iowa, Harkin graduated from Iowa State University and The Catholic University of America's Columbus School of Law. He served in the United States Navy as an active-duty jet pilot (1962–1967). After serving as a congressional aide for several years, he made two runs for the U.S. House of Representatives, losing in 1972 but winning in 1974. He went on to serve five terms in the House.
Harkin won a race for U.S. Senate in 1984 by a wide margin. He was an early frontrunner for his party's presidential nomination in 1992, but he dropped out in support of eventual winner Bill Clinton. He served five Senate terms and at the end of his time in the Senate served as chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. He authored the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and was its chief sponsor in the Senate. Harkin delivered part of his introduction speech in sign language, saying it was so his deaf brother could understand.On January 26, 2013, Harkin announced that he would not seek reelection in 2014.

Edgar Rice Updegraff (March 1, 1922 – December 23, 2022) was an American amateur golfer and urologist.

Evelyn Irene Hoopes Teegan (born November 17, 1931, Muscatine County, Iowa) was a non-career appointee who served concurrent appointments as the American Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Kiribati, Tuvalu, Fiji, and Tonga from November 21, 1989, to March 5, 1993.
A housewife from Edina, Minnesota, Teegan had served as a Republican National Committeewoman. She was Vice President of Teegan and Associates in Minneapolis since 1987. She graduated from Iowa State University in 1953.

Beverly Joan Nelson (née Dunn; July 2, 1929) is an American politician in the state of Iowa. Nelson was born in Clemons, Iowa. She attended the Mercy School of Nursing (Dubuque), University of Iowa (B.S.N.), and Iowa State University (M.S. and PhD). A Republican, she served in the Iowa House of Representatives from 1995 to 2001 (64th district).

Larry Marek (born 1940) is a Democratic politician, representing the 89th District in the Iowa House of Representatives since 2008. From Washington County, Iowa, Marek served in the Iowa National Guard for eight years. He went to the University of Iowa on a farm operation program. Marek was a farmer and was involved with the banking business.

Charles Frederick Lettow (born February 10, 1941) is a senior judge of the United States Court of Federal Claims, appointed to that court in 2003 by President George W. Bush.
Born to Carl F. and Catherine Lettow in Iowa Falls, Iowa, Lettow received a B.S.Ch.E. from Iowa State University in 1962. He served in the U.S. Army with the Third Infantry Division from 1963 to 1965, and thereafter received a Bachelor of Laws degree from Stanford University in 1968, where he was Note Editor of the Stanford Law Review and a member of Order of the Coif. He was a law clerk to Judge Ben C. Duniway of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, from 1968 to 1969, and to Chief Justice Warren E. Burger of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1969 to 1970. Lettow served as counsel to the Council on the Environmental Quality in the Executive Office of the President from 1970 to 1973. He then joined the law firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, first as an associate from 1973 to 1976, and then as a partner until 2003. During that time, he argued three cases in the U.S. Supreme Court and more than 40 cases in the federal courts of appeals, and handled numerous cases in federal trial courts.While at Cleary, Gottlieb, Lettow was active with educational institutions and bar organizations. He served as a member of the board of trustees of The Potomac School from 1983 to 1990, and was chairman of the board from 1985 to 1988. He also was chairman of the Environmental Controls Committee of the Section of Business Law, American Bar Association, from 1983 to 1987. In January 1992, Lettow received an award from the National Association of Attorneys General "for sustained assistance to the States in their preparation for appearances before the Supreme Court of the United States". He became a member of the American Law Institute in 1994, and in 1997 and 1998, he received awards from the National State and Local Legal Center for amicus briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court. Lettow also received a Master of Arts in history from Brown University in 2001.

Kenneth Roy De Groot (October 16, 1929 – April 22, 1993) was an American politician who sat in the Iowa House of Representatives between 1979 and 1993 as a member of the Republican Party. He held the District 1 seat until 1983, when he began representing District 8.
De Groot was born in Perkins, Iowa on October 16, 1929. He was a graduate of Hull High School, and pursued tertiary education at Iowa State University and Northwestern College. After college, De Groot became a dairy farmer for 42 years. Alongside his sons, De Groot owned and operated DG Valley-View Farms. De Groot held membership and executive positions in several agricultural collectives, companies, and associations, among them, 4-H, the Dairy Herd Improvement Association, the Land O'Lakes Northwest Iowa Dairy Division, and the Farm Bureau.De Groot served in the Iowa House of Representatives between 1979 and 1993 as a member of the Republican Party. He held the District 1 seat until 1983, when he began representing District 8. De Groot died on April 22, 1993, months after completing his seventh and final term in office.

Wayne Dresden Bennett (November 7, 1927 – September 3, 2015) was an American politician in the state of Iowa.
Bennett was born in Schaller, Iowa. He attended Iowa State University and was a farmer. Bennett served in the Iowa House from 1973 to 1993 for district 48 from 1973 to 1983 and district 4 from 1983 to 1993. Bennett was also a state senator from the 6th district from 1993 to 1997. He died on September 3, 2015.

Richard Francis Drake (September 28, 1927 – January 26, 2008) was an American politician in the state of Iowa.
Drake was born in Muscatine, Iowa. A farmer, he attended the United States Naval Academy and Iowa State University. A Republican, he also served in the Iowa State Senate from 1977 to 2005. Previously, he served in the Iowa House of Representatives from 1969 to 1977. He died in 2008 in Muscatine, Iowa.

Gordon Murray Shepherd (21 July 1933 – 9 June 2022) was an American neuroscientist who carried out basic experimental and computational research on how neurons are organized into microcircuits to carry out the functional operations of the nervous system. Using the olfactory system as a model that spans multiple levels of space, time and disciplines, his studies ranged from molecular to behavioral, recognized by an annual lecture at Yale University on "integrative neuroscience". At the time of his death, he was professor of neuroscience emeritus at the Yale School of Medicine. He graduated from Iowa State University with a BA, Harvard Medical School with an MD, and the University of Oxford with a DPhill.