William Alexander

William Alexander was one of those Centurions whose mere presence in a group gave added pleasure to the conversation. He did not himself talk much, but he was the best of listeners, and when he spoke briefly—he was apt to do so—his remarks were always to the point. It was the likable quality of the man himself which made a Club acquaintance feel a sense of restful contentment when, in the reading-room, he dropped into an empty chair beside that in which the fellow-member with the cheerful smile and the long gray beard was installed. Alexander’s profession was life insurance, whose principles and history he knew to the farthest detail. But he did not talk shop, unless some Club friend wished to draw on his store of information. Even then, Alexander’s quiet observations had to do with human interest, never with technicalities. He had achieved the extraordinary record of serving continuously for sixty-eight years with a single company, and of being regularly elected and re-elected during fifty-eight years as secretary of the Equitable Life. The Equitable’s memorial bulletin wrote of him that “for over half a century he was a leader in American life insurance,” that he was “strong in his convictions, determined of purpose,” yet “never happier than when, with pencil in hand and a child or two at his side, he would illustrate some fanciful tale as he improvised it.”

Alexander Dana Noyes
1938 Century Association Yearbook