David Alexander

Male, Deceased Person

1932 – 2010

79

Who was David Alexander?

John David Alexander was an American academic who served as president of Pomona College during a period of time where he led a major expansion of the school, and served as US National Secretary for the Rhodes Trust, overseeing the selection process for recipients of the Rhodes Scholarship from the United States.

Alexander was born on October 18, 1932, in Springfield, Tennessee. He was raised in Princeton, Kentucky and graduated from Southwestern at Memphis College, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and with honors in Greek language, and then attended Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. He was selected as a Rhodes Scholar in 1954 and was awarded a doctorate in theology from Christ Church, Oxford, where he studied Greek, Hebrew and church history.

After returning to the United States, he taught at San Francisco Theological Seminary. He became the president of Southwestern at Memphis in 1965, where he desegregated the college's network of fraternities and sororities. At 33, Alexander was one of the youngest college presidents in the United States and was the first alumnus to serve in the position. He was named president of Pomona College in 1969. During his more than two decades at the nationally ranked liberal arts college, he oversaw a major expansion in the school's endowment from $24 million to $296 million and the construction of numerous new buildings on its campus in Claremont, California.

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Born
Oct 18, 1932
Tennessee
Education
  • Christ Church, Oxford
  • University of Oxford
Died
Jul 25, 2010

Submitted
on July 23, 2013

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