Centre ranks first in the country for the percentage of former students making gifts.
Notable alumni include:
Joshua Fry Bell: The first
alumnus to serve in Congress, among the 43 Centre alumni who have been elected to the House and 13 to the Senate.
John Cabell Breckinridge: Vice President of the
United States under Buchanan; Candidate for President in 1860.
John Marshall Harlan: Associate Justice on the US Supreme
Court for 34 years. Harlan cast the dissenting vote in Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896; the text of his dissent became the basis for
Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.
Adlai E. Stevenson: Vice President of the United States under
Cleveland.
Frederick M. Vinson: Chief Justice of the US Supreme
Court.