Wallace M. Alexander

Wallace McKinney Alexander was born on November 10, 1869 in Maui, Hawaii.[1][2] His father was Samuel Thomas Alexander.[2] His mother was Martha E. (Cooke) Alexander.[2] His paternal grandfather, William Patterson Alexander, was a missionary in Hawaii.[2] His maternal grandfather, Amos Starr Cooke, was a Hawaii missionary and founder of the Castle & Cooke company.

Alexander grew up in Oakland, California and was educated at Oakland High School,[3][4] then Phillips Andover Academy in Andover, Massachusetts.[2] He graduated from Yale University in 1892.[1][5]

Alexander owned sugarcane plantations as well as sugar refining factories in Hawaii.[1] He served on the Board of Directors of Alexander and Baldwin.[1] He also served as the Vice President of the Matson Navigation Company and the Honolulu Oil Corporation.[1]

He served as president of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce.[1][5] He was also a powerbroker in the Republican Party of San Francisco.[5] In 1928, he suggested prohibiting mutual immigration between the United States and Japan; the idea was rejected by Japan.[5]

Alexander served on the board of trustees of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.[1] He was a member of the Japan Society of San Francisco and a co-founder of the Institute of Pacific Relations.[1][5] He supported the Boy Scouts of America.[1]

He served as president of the San Francisco Opera.[1] He also served on the Board of Trustees of Stanford University in Stanford, near Palo Alto, having been first elected in 1924 and re-elected in 1934.[1]

He received the Legion of Honor from France in 1937.[1]

Alexander married Mary S. Baker in 1904,a classmate for when Alexander attended Oakland public schools.[2], As an adult he lived in Piedmont, California and moved back to Hawaii where he died.

Alexander died on November 22, 1939 in Honolulu, Hawaii.[1] He was seventy years old.[1]