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You are here: Home / Prominent People / William DeWitt Alexander

February 21, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

William DeWitt Alexander

“Professor Alexander was born April 2, 1833, in Honolulu, and died, February 21, 1913. A brief illness necessitating an operation from which he could not rally resulted in speedy and unexpected death.”

“He was officially connected with the Hawaiian Historical Society from its inception, holding the offices of corresponding secretary, president and first vice-president.”

“It has been well said that without his patient, untiring, loving care the Historical Society would scarcely have been able to survive. The excellent library had his continual oversight.”

“The various meetings were always planned in connection with his counsels, and the membership freely received his sympathy and encouragement in every historical effort.”

“He was also an original member or founder of the Polynesian Society of New Zealand and enjoyed the personal friendship of the leading students of Polynesian history.”

“His scientific attainments brought to him a fellowship in the Royal Geographical Society and membership in the Astronomical Society as well as the degrees D.Sc. and LL.D.”

“He was a graduate of Yale University in 1855, and carried the honor of the Salutatory address. In 1857 he came back to Honolulu as professor of Greek in Oahu College.”

“He was connected with the college thirteen years, six years as professor and seven years as president, and then took charge of the Bureau of Government Survey, which he held for nearly thirty years.”

“Professor Alexander held a number of positions of trust under the government, among which were the following: Member of the Privy Council under King Kalakaua and Queen Liliuokalani; member of the Board of Education from 1887, for thirteen years.”

“In 1874 he went to Washington to represent the Hawaiian government in the International Meridian Conference, in which forty governments were represented, and again in 1893 in the interests of the annexation party under instructions from the provisional government.”

“He was a trustee of the Honolulu Library Association; was surveyor-general of the Territory, and assisted in the geodetic survey conducted by the United States government.”

“His friends bear hearty testimony to his co-operation with all efforts put forth for the well being of the community. He was unfailingly present in church activities and for many years was prominent in the Hawaiian Board of Missions and its various lines of influence.”

“As was well said by Dr. Frear, his former friend and pastor: ‘He was a learned man, generous and sympathetic. In church work his prayers were always models of brevity, completeness and simplicity.’”

“‘He was a lover of truth, always desiring to get at facts. He never assumed the attitude of the opposer. His scholarship was of a high order, and he always kept up to modern thought- and abreast of the times.’”

“‘The most modest and unassuming of men, he was a brilliant scholar, an unfailingly accurate historian, charming and attractive in style as a writer, and an intelligent lover of all that was beautiful and true in literature.’”

“His literary work was so carefully and accurately carried out that he won the well-deserved reputation of being the best historian in the islands. His history and the various articles written from time to time have already been accepted as the standard for historical students.

Mrs. Abigail Alexander, the wife of Professor W. D. Alexander, joined her husband in the home of eternal life April 23, 1913. She was the daughter of Rev. Dwight Baldwin, M.D. who came to the Islands as a missionary in 1831.”

“She was born in Waimea, Hawai‘i in November, 1833, and lived to be almost eighty years of age. She married Professor Alexander July 18, 1860.”

“Mrs. Alexander was a woman of rare temperament and ability and with her husband exerted a strong influence in developing the intellectual life of the Hawaiian Islands.” (Hawaiian Historical Society, 1913)

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William DeWitt Alexander
William DeWitt Alexander

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