Some Prominent Quakers

• Robert Barclay (1648 – 1690) – perhaps the most prominent Quaker theologian. His Apology for the True Christian Divinity provided the first organized statement of Quaker beliefs.
• Howard H. Brinton (1884 – 1973), Anna Cox Brinton (1887-1969)  – he became director of studies and she became director of administration at Pendle Hill, a Quaker retreat in Wallingford, PA. Together they helped define the mission of Pendle Hill as a religious community and retreat center for the study of Quaker mysticism. They began a pamphlet series that explores many aspects of Quakerism. Howard also wrote the classic book, Friends for 300 years.
• Henry J. Cadbury (1883 – 1974) - biblical scholar, served on the group of translators who produced the Revised Standard Version of the Bible; professor at Haverford College and Harvard Divinity School. Representing the American Friends Service Committee, he accepted the Nobel Prize diplomas and medals with Miss Margaret A. Backhouse, representing the Friends Service Council of Great Britian and Ireland.
• Stephen G. Carey (1915 – 2002) - Associate General Secretary of the American Friends Service Committee, Director of Development at Haverford College and later Acting President. Chief of American Quaker Relief Operations in Europe from 1946-48, overseeing work in 10 countries dealing with the aftermath of WWII, work for which the Nobel Prize was awarded. 
• Margaret Fell (1614 – 1702) - wife of Judge Thomas Fell of Swarthmore Hall in England and one of the first followers of George Fox. She made her house a center for the Quaker movement. Married George Fox in 1669 after Judge Fell died. Prolific Quaker tract writer and preacher.
• George Fox (1624 – 1691) – charismatic, peripatetic preacher who gathered a group of followers in the early 1650s to establish the Quaker movement. With Margaret Fell, he laid the administrative foundation for the Religious Society of Friends.
• Rufus M Jones (1863 – 1948) – Professor at Haverford College, wrote numerous books about Quakerism, worked to turn Friends toward a mystical and prophetic Christianity. First Chairman of the Board of the American Friends Service Committee. Edited the American Friend for 20 years.
• Lucretia Mott (1793 – 1880) – major national figure in the anti-slavery and feminist movements. Sent to England as a delegate to an anti-slavery conference, she was refused a seat because of her sex. This rejection led to the woman’s rights movement in America when Lucretia and her friend Elizabeth Cady Stanton, whom she had met in England at that sexually unequal conference, organized the Seneca Falls Woman’s Rights convention in 1848. This marked the birth of a movement that in 1920 finally gained women the right to vote with the ratification of the 19th Amendment.
• William Penn (1644 – 1718) – founded the colony of Pennsylvania, which he called a Holy Experiment. Author of No Cross, No Crown and Fruits of Solitude.
• Dorothy Steere (1907 – 2003) – involved with the American Friends Service Committee 1945 – 1980, wrote multiple essays and the pamphlet "The Whole World in His Hands" (1965). With husband Douglas, prominent in the rebirth of Radnor (PA) Monthly Meeting.
• Douglas V. Steere (1901 – 1995) – Professor of Religion, Haverford College, led the work camp movement in Finland after World War II, wrote the Quaker classic Dimensions of Prayer.
• John Woolman (1720 – 1772) – has been called “America’s Quaker saint.” A tailor from Mount Holly, NJ combined simplicity of life-style and transcendent spirituality in the service of strong social concerns, particularly abolition.
• Bayard Rustin (1912 – 1987) -- American political activist,  prominent leader in social movements for civil rights, socialism, nonviolence, and gay rights. Rustin was the principal organizer of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963.

Other Well-known Quakers

• Actors/actresses - Judy Dench, James Dean, Kevin Bacon
• Singers/songwriters - Dave Matthews, Joan Baez, Bonnie Raitt 
• Author- James Mitchner
• Pioneer - Daniel Boone
• Journalist - Edward R Murrow
• Poets - Walt Whitman, John Greenleaf Whittier
• First Lady of the United States - Dolly Madison
• Cowgirl - Annie Oakley
• Chocolatier - John Cadberry
• Philanthropist- Johns Hopkins
• Surgeon - Joseph Lister (pioneered antiseptic surgery)
• Nobel Prize Winners- American Friends Service Committee and the British Friends Service Council (1947), Emily Greene Balch (1949), Philip Noel-Baker (1959), Joseph Taylor (1993), William Vickrey (1996), Jon Fosse (2023)