A true Renaissance man

Photo courtesy of Errol Alexander

ONE SMALL STEP. In the 1960s Errol Alexander worked for a company involved in the effort to put men on the moon.

As the 40th anniversary of the landing of the first men on the moon was observed last month, perhaps no one in Tacoma had a stronger sense of pride than Errol Duane Alexander. He was involved in the ambitious engineering effort. What he learned from that experience shaped his views on leadership, something he has spent much of his life exhibiting and teaching.

Alexander was born in Sandusky, Ohio in 1941. He graduated from high school and briefly attended Kentucky State University. Then he enrolled at Ohio State University and took a summer job at a steel mill in his hometown. He was asked to run for secretary of the local chapter of United Auto Workers, among the most powerful unions in the country. He was elected, due in part to his father’s standing in the community.

He became president of the Sandusky chapter of National Organization for the Advancement of Colored People and was a regional coordinator for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s march on Washington, D.C. in 1963, one of the watershed events of the civil rights movement.

He got married and started a family during this time. All the while he was completing his studies at Ohio State, taking classes at night.

In 1964 he moved to Jackson, Mich. to work at Spartan Electronics. He gave up a good-paying, powerful union position. Now a father of three, he worked part-time in a grocery store to make ends meet.

“My goal was to spend a year there, learn all I could and then move on,” he recalled.

Next it was on to a job with Bendix Systems in Ann Arbor, Mich. to work on National Aeronautic and Space Administration’s moon shot project.

He was promoted to assistant project manager of the Thermal Mapper Project. This technology not only made the moon shot possible, it led to the development of night vision goggles.

“They called us the aerospace gypsies,” he said. “No one had ever been to the moon before.” Alexander was involved in Apollo 11, 12 and 13.

Putting men on the moon was a daunting challenge. The moon’s gravity is one-sixth of Earth and it has extreme temperatures, ranging from 270 Fahrenheit to 300 below zero. It carried big political implications as well, with the Soviets going all out to beat the Americans to the moon. “The Russians were trying to steal our thunder.”

Alexander would like to see an effort to put astronauts on Mars. “The moon will probably turn into a commercial venture,” he predicted.

He relocated to Connecticut for an engineering job with Pratt & Whitney Aircraft. Among his accomplishments during this time was serving as board chair of Greater Hartford Urban League.

He became a venture capitalist and consultant.

In 1985 he was appointed to a fact-finding mission to South Africa by the U.S. State Department, to assess the feasibility of sanctions against that country for its apartheid policies.

By 1986 he was divorced. He moved to Scotland, earning a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Strathclyde and a doctorate degree from the University of Glasgow.

He went on to teach business classes at a number of colleges and conduct leadership seminars for executives.

Alexander feels great leaders have three characteristics: politeness, a good sense of humor and an ability to understand people.

“Too many of our politicians are slot fillers,” he said. “Teddy Roosevelt was the last truly bright guy in the White House.”

Alexander remarried. He and his wife were living in Maryland when she recently was offered a job teaching at the University of Washington-Tacoma.

The couple and their daughter, a middle school student, live in the North End. Alexander has kept busy with his painting and writing (he has published a novel). His creativity is so deep a den or home office is not sufficient space; he rents an apartment just to pursue his intellectual interests.

Alexander seems poised to do something significant in his new hometown, although what remains to be determined. He is a member of Rotary and has met a number of leaders in the community at Rotary meetings.

Whatever he embarks on in the City of Destiny, it will be as an individual with a strong, independent spirit.

“I don’t fit anybody’s mold,” he said. “I do Errol Alexander better than anyone else.”

Alexander can be reached by calling (253) 376-0761.

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