Gordon, Alexander

Epithet: Commendator of Inchaffray, Archbishop of Athens

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Epithet: of the India Board

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Epithet: Captain; RE

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Epithet: Provost of Fortrose, county Ross

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Epithet: FSA

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Epithet: of Earlston, in Dalry

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Epithet: biographer

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Title: 2nd Duke of Gordon

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Epithet: of Londonderry

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Epithet: Merchant

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Title: 4th Duke of Gordon

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Title: Baronet

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Title: 5th Viscount Kenmure

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Epithet: Secretary to Lord Ripon

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Epithet: Colonel; of Add MS 35676

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Epithet: Bishop of Galloway

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Epithet: LLD; Congregational minister

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Epithet: of Portmahomack

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Dr. Alexander was born August 18, 1901, in Rock Hill, Missouri. He had served 35 years on the faculty of the University of Colorado until his retirement in July, 1966, including 19 years (1939 to 1958) as head of the Biology Department.

He received a B.A. degree from Central Methodist College, Fayette, Mo., which presented him with the Distinguished Alumni Award in 1951. Dr. Alexander then received his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Princeton University, where he held the Francis Hinton Maule Fellowship from 1924-26.

Beginning as an instructor at CU in 1931, Dr. Alexander divided his time on the faculty between research, teaching and the improvement of biology teaching generally at CU.

His research here was devoted primarily to the study of animal distribution in relation to altitude. To support this study, he received more than $20,000 from the National Science Foundation during 1958-62. Dr. Alexander also conducted research on the ecology of high altitudes on birds, insects and protozoan physiology.

His prime contribution to biology teaching at the University of Colorado was the establishment of a curriculum based on general biology, rather than botany and zoology, as the introductory course.

Dr. Alexander also spent three years of his career in Bangkok, Thailand. His first trip was from 1928 to 1930, when he was in charge of the biology program at Chulalongkorn University on a Rockefeller Foundation assignment. While there, he made a special study and collection of the birds of Thailand. His second trip was as a Fulbright lecturer at the same institution from 1956-57. On both occasions, Dr. Alexander was asked to make recommendations, subsequently adopted, on the biology curriculum of the University. He also conducted research on the natural history of Thailand. Dr. Alexander was the author of four books and more than 50 articles in technical journals. The books include outlines of biology and general zoology for the College Outline Series.

He was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and has served on its council. Dr. Alexander also was a member of the Ecological Society of America, on whose executive committee he had served, and a member of the editorial board for its journal “Ecological Monographs.” As a member of the Entomological Society of America, he served as its representative on the council on the AAAS. He was a member of the American Society of Zoologists, the Society for the Study of Evolution and the American Ornithologists Union.

He had served as vice president and president of the Colorado Chapter of the Society of the Sigma Xi and, in 1963, he served as president of the Colorado-Wyoming Academy of Science. He was a member of the American Institute of Biological Sciences and was chairman of the committee on local arrangements for the national meetings in Boulder in 1964. He received an entry in Who’s Who .

During five different years between 1953 and 1960, Dr. Alexander was a member of panels in Washington, D.C., selecting graduate fellows under the National Science Foundation fellowship program.(1)

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(1) Biography taken from Dr. Alexander’s obituary found in The Boulder Daily Camera, August 4, 1973.

From the guide to the Gordon Alexander Collection, (1916-1970), (University of Colorado at Boulder Libraries. Archives Dept.)