James Forrestal 1915

Mode of exit: Transferred to Princeton

Career: Journalist, businessman, statesman

Most notable achievement: Became the first secretary of defense

Quote: "Public life is certainly no place for an introvert."

Forrestal is the only famous Dartmouth non-graduate known to have dropped out of two schools. Burdened by problems with grades and finances, he left Princeton six weeks before he was to graduate. After a distinguished business career, he became undersecretary and then secretary of the navy, in 1947. President Harry Truman made him secretary of the newly created Department of Defense. He served two years before being admitted to Bethesda Naval Hospital for psychiatric treatment. He committed suicide by jumping out of a 16th-story window.