Notable Members

Notable SAR members

Presidents of the United States

To date, 17 presidents of the United States have been members of the SAR. President Grant was admitted posthumously in recognition of his being a member of the Sons of Revolutionary Sires, whose members were later admitted to membership in the SAR.

• Ulysses S. Grant (posthumous) 18th
• Rutherford B. Hayes 19th
• Benjamin Harrison 23rd
• William McKinley 25th
• Theodore Roosevelt 26th
• William Howard Taft 27th
• Warren G. Harding 29th
• Calvin Coolidge 30th
• Herbert Hoover 31st
• Franklin D. Roosevelt 32nd
• Harry S. Truman 33rd
• Dwight D. Eisenhower 34th
• Lyndon B. Johnson 36th
• Gerald D. “Jerry” Ford 38th
• James Earl “Jimmy” Carter 39th
• George H. W. Bush 41st
• George W. Bush 43rd

Of the presidents who lived since the SAR’s founding in 1889 and are not listed above, presidents Grover Cleveland, Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama all had patriot ancestors but did not join the SAR. Presidents Woodrow Wilson, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, and Donald Trump did not have patriot ancestors.

 Vice presidents of the United States

• Charles G. Dawes
• Levi P. Morton
• Nelson Rockefeller

In addition to the above, the following vice presidents were SAR compatriots and later became President of the United States: Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Harry S Truman, Lyndon Johnson, Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush.

Nobel Peace Prize recipients

• President Theodore Roosevelt
• Vice President Charles G. Dawes
• Secretary of State Elihu Root

Medal of Honor recipients

• General of the Army Douglas MacArthur – Legendary general
• Lieutenant General Nelson A. Miles – U.S. Army Commanding General, 1895–1903
• Major General Adolphus Greely – Civil War veteran and Arctic explorer
• Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd, Jr., USN – aviator and Antarctic explorer
• Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., AUS – Landed at Utah Beach on D-Day
• Brigadier General John B. Babcock
• Brigadier General Joseph Foss, SDANG – Governor of South Dakota
• Brevet Brigadier General Horace Porter
• Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, USV – Hero of the Battle of San Juan Hill
• Brevet Colonel Horatio Collins King
• Major John Alexander Logan, Jr., USV
• Surgeon John O. Skinner

 Military and naval officers

• Admiral of the Navy George Dewey – Hero of the Battle of Manila Bay
• General of the Armies John J. Pershing – U.S. Army Chief of Staff and commander of the American Expeditionary Force in the First World War
• General of the Army Dwight Eisenhower – Supreme Commander of Allied Forces Europe
• General of the Air Force Henry H. Arnold, USAF – Commander of the U.S. Army Air Force in World War II
• Fleet Admiral William F. Halsey – Commander of the 3rd Fleet in World War II
• General Joseph E. Johnston, CSA – Confederate general
• General Frederick Kroesen – Former Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Army
• General Charles P. Summerall – U.S. Army Chief of Staff
• General William C. Westmoreland – United States commander in Vietnam.
• Admiral Thomas H. Moorer – Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
• Admiral David Dixon Porter – Senior admiral of the U.S. Navy
• Admiral Harry D. Train II – NATO Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic
• Lieutenant General Joseph Wheeler, CSA – Veteran of the Civil War and the Spanish–American War
• Major General Thomas M. Anderson – Veteran of the Civil War, Spanish–American War and the Philippine Insurrection
• Major General Joseph Cabell Breckinridge, Sr., USV – U.S. Army general
• Major General Darius N. Couch, USV – Union Army general during the Civil War
• Major General Frederick D. Grant, USV – Son of President Ulysses S. Grant
• Major General Ulysses S. Grant III – Grandson of President Ulysses S. Grant
• Major General Curtis Guild, Jr., USV – Governor of Massachusetts
• Major General William Henry Fitzhugh Lee, CSA – Son of General Robert E. Lee
• Major General William R. Shafter – Commanded U.S. Army V Corps in Cuba in the Spanish–American War
• Rear Admiral John R. Bartlett – Oceanographer
• Rear Admiral Lewis A. Kimberly
• Rear Admiral Winfield Scott Schley – Hero of the Battle of Santiago de Cuba
• Rear Admiral John L. Worden – Commander of the USS Monitor
• Brigadier General James Devereux, USMC – Recipient of the Navy Cross and congressman
• Brigadier General Charles Wheaton Abbot, Jr., RING – Adjutant General of Rhode Island
• Brigadier General George Andrews – Adjutant General of the United States Army
• Brigadier General George Lippitt Andrews
• Brigadier General William H. Bisbee – Veteran of the Civil War and Spanish–American War
• Brigadier General Charles A. Coolidge – Veteran of the Civil War and Spanish–American War
• Brigadier General Charles Duke – Apollo 16 lunar module pilot
• Brigadier General Winfield Scott Edgerly – Veteran of the Indian Wars and the Spanish–American War
• Brigadier General Edmund Rice – Medal of Honor recipient.
• Brigadier General George Miller Sternberg – U.S. Army Surgeon General
• Brigadier General Charles Foster Tillinghast, Sr. – Veteran of the Spanish–American War and World War I
• Captain Charles V. Gridley – Captain of the USS Olympia at the Battle of Manila Bay
• Colonel Ashley Chadbourne McKinley, USAF – Photographer on first flight over the South Pole
• Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, USV – Spanish–American War veteran
• Lieutenant Colonel Russell Benjamin Harrison, USV – Veteran of the Spanish–American War and son of President Benjamin Harrison
• Major Archibald Butt – Presidential aide who died on the RMS Titanic
• Major Washington Irving Lincoln Adams, NA – Politician, banker and veteran of World War I, descendant of President John Adams and president general of the SAR from 1922 to 1923
• Brevet Major Augustus P. Davis, USV – Founder of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War 

Public officials

 Foreign national leaders

• HM Juan Carlos I – King of Spain
• Rt. Hon. Sir Winston Churchill KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS – Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

 Cabinet officers

• Charles F. Adams III – Secretary of the Navy
• Joseph W. Barr – Secretary of the Treasury
• Charles Evans Hughes (honorary) – Supreme Court Chief Justice, Secretary of State and Governor of New York
• Elihu Root – Secretary of War and Secretary of State
• John Sherman – Secretary of the Treasury and United States Senator, author of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act
• Henry L. Stimson – Secretary of War during World War II
• Donald Rumsfeld – Secretary of Defense

Diplomats

• Angier Biddle Duke – Ambassador to Denmark
• David J. Hill – Ambassador to Germany
• John Langeloth Loeb, Jr. – Ambassador to Denmark
• Henry L. Wilson – Diplomat and Ambassador to Mexico 1909–1913

Governors

• Sherman Adams – Governor of New Hampshire and chief of staff to President Eisenhower
• Augustus O. Bourn – Governor of Rhode Island
• Morgan Bulkeley – Governor of Connecticut, United States Senator, Mayor of Hartford and longtime president of Aetna Insurance
• Harry F. Byrd – Governor and United States Senator from Virginia
• Lawton Chiles – U.S. Senator and Governor of Florida
• Owen Vincent Coffin – Governor of Connecticut
• Thomas E. Dewey – Governor of New York and presidential candidate
• Elisha Dyer, Jr. – Governor of Rhode Island
• Bob Ehrlich – Governor of Maryland
• Phillips Lee Goldsborough – Governor of Maryland
• Curtis Guild, Jr. – Governor of Massachusetts
• Lucius F. Hubbard – Governor of Minnesota and brigadier general during the Spanish–American War
• Charles D. Kimball – Governor of Rhode Island
• Charles W. Lippitt – Governor of Rhode Island
• Arch A. Moore, Jr. – Governor of West Virginia
• Levi P. Morton – Vice President of the U.S. and Governor of New York
• Franklin Murphy – Governor of New Jersey
• Martin O’Malley – Governor of Maryland and presidential candidate
• Rick Perry – Governor of Texas
• Henry Roberts – Governor of Connecticut
• Nelson A. Rockefeller – Governor of New York and Vice President of the United States
• Winthrop Rockefeller – Governor of Arkansas
• Theodore Roosevelt – Governor of New York and Assistant Secretary of the Navy
• John G. Rowland – Governor of Connecticut
• Royal C. Taft – Governor of Rhode Island
• Edwin Warfield – Governor of Maryland
• Charles S. Whitman – Governor of New York
• Rollin S. Woodruff – Governor of Connecticut

United States Senators

• Lamar Alexander – United States Senator
• Scott Brown – United States Senator from Massachusetts
• Quentin N. Burdick – U.S. Senator from North Dakota
• Harry F. Byrd, Jr. – United States Senator from Virginia
• Chauncey M. Depew – United States Senator, member of the Skull and Bones Society and President of the Empire State Society of the SAR from 1890 to 1899
• Sam Ervin – United States Senator and Distinguished Service Cross recipient
• Barry M. Goldwater – United States Senator and presidential candidate
• Hamilton Fish Kean – United States Senator from New Jersey
• Kenneth B. Keating – United States Senator from New York and Ambassador to India and Israel
• Henry F. Lippitt – United States Senator from Rhode Island
• Henry Cabot Lodge – United States Senator from Massachusetts
• John S. McCain, III – United States Senator from Arizona
• Mitch McConnell – United States Senate Majority Leader
• Jesse H. Metcalf – U.S. Senator from Rhode Island
• Gary Peters – United States Senator from Michigan
• Leverett Saltonstall – U.S. Senator and Governor of Massachusetts
• Robert Taft, Jr. – U.S. Senator from Ohio
• Herman Talmadge – U.S. Senator from Georgia
• Strom Thurmond – U.S. Senator from South Carolina
• John Tower – U.S. Senator from Texas
• Roger Wicker – U.S. Senator from Mississippi

U.S. Representatives

• Richard S. Aldrich – United States Representative from Rhode Island
• Hale Boggs – Majority Leader, U.S. House of Representatives
• Colonel William Campbell Preston Breckinridge, CSA – U.S. Representative from Kentucky
• Brigadier General James P. S. Devereux, USMC – U.S. Congressman and Navy Cross recipient
• Gilbert Gude – U.S. Representative
• Jefferson M. Levy – United States Representative and owner of Monticello
• John J. Rhodes – U.S. Representative for 30 years
• Henry Stockbridge – U.S. Representative
• David Jenkins Ward – U.S. Congressmen
• Bob Wilson – U.S. Representative from California

 Other public officials

• Colonel Louis R. Cheney – Mayor of Hartford, Connecticut
• Arthur W. Coolidge – Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts
• George P. Cronk – Los Angeles City Council member, 1945–52
• Arthur W. Dennis – Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island
• Seymour Lowman – Lieutenant Governor of New York
• Wallace McCamant – Federal judge
• Winthrop Paul Rockefeller – Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas
• Ernest E. Rogers – Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut
• George L. Shepley – Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island

Other notable members

• Henry L. P. Beckwith, Jr.– Genealogist and historian
• Luther Blount – Inventor and shipyard owner
• George Madison Bodge – Author, historian, and genealogist
• John Nicholas Brown II – Philanthropist

• Charles W. Burpee – Newspaper editor
• Henry Louis Gates, Jr – Professor and chairman of the African American Studies Program at Harvard University
• Elbridge Thomas Gerry – Reformer and commodore of the New York Yacht Club
• Howard B. Gist, Sr. – attorney and civic figure in Alexandria, Louisiana
• Benjamin Apthorp Gould – astronomer
• John B. Hattendorf – Naval historian and professor at the United States Naval War College
• William Randolph Hearst – Newspaper publisher and U.S. Representative
• William Randolph Hearst, Jr. – Newspaper editor
• Benjamin Newhall Johnson – Attorney and historian
• Rod D. Martin – former PayPal executive, former President of the National Federation of Republican Assemblies, technology entrepreneur and author
• Frederick Law Olmsted – Landscape architect and designer of Central Park
• Norman Vincent Peale – Author and minister
• H. Paul Pressler – Texas appeals court justice and leader of the Conservative Resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention
• John D. Rockefeller – Founder of Standard Oil
• Theodore Roosevelt – Author and conservationist
• Elliott Fitch Shepard – lawyer and newspaper owner^[22]
• George Albert Smith – President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
• John Spencer-Churchill – Artist and nephew of Winston Churchill
• Lowell Thomas – Author and news anchor
• George Washington Vanderbilt II – Owner of the Biltmore estate
• Edgar Williamson, Jr. – Insurance executive