Ezra Dee Alexander
Founder
Founder Ezra Dee Alexander was an outgoing and dedicated worker. He was fondly known as “Dee,” was born in Bloomington, Indiana, on July 18, 1891, and was the second eldest of seven children.
Alexander graduated from Bloomington High School in 1910. He matriculated to Indiana University in the fall of 1910 and graduated from Indiana University in 1917 with an A.B. degree. Prior to graduation, he held positions as a teacher and principal at Indiana public schools. He received his M.D. from the Medical School of Indiana University in 1919. Alexander served an internship at Provident Hospital in Chicago in 1920. Alexander served in the Army Medical Corps during WWI and as a medical examiner during WWII. He practiced medicine in Indianapolis for nearly 50 years.
In 1920, he married Mary Hunter, an Indianapolis Public School system teacher. They had a son, Ezra D. Alexander Jr., who became a member of the fraternity, and a daughter, Dorothy Alexander. He later married Leota Snorden in 1961.
Achievements
- First Grand Polemarch (served for six years)
- First recipient of the Laurel Wreath, 1924
- Received his degree in June of 1916 from Indiana University
- An educator by profession, he taught in the public schools of Indianapolis, Indiana, where he was elevated to a principalship.
- Upon America’s entrance into World War I, Diggs entered the Nation’s first Officer’s Training Camp at Fort Des Moines, Iowa, Commissioned a lieutenant in World War 1.
- After European service with the 368th Infantry, he became a captain in the Reserve Officers Training Corps.
