By Karen Lloyd

Gordon Alexander

From his early years growing up in rural Missouri where he explored the nearby Missouri River Valley, Gordon Alexander (1901-1973) developed a fascination for the natural history and ecology which surrounded him. During his youth he collected bird eggs and nests, insects and fossils and enjoyed drawing plants and animals. As a professor at the University of Colorado, Alexander developed a special interest in the ecology of the Rocky Mountains around Boulder and of Colorado in general. It was his great interest in natural history and ecology that influenced much of his research on grasshoppers and birds. In particular, many of these studies focused on how the ecology and biology of birds and insects change along an elevational gradient.

Gordon Alexander was a professor at the University of Colorado from 1939 to 1966, where he headed the Biology Department for nearly 20 years. For a brief period, during World War II, Alexander was also the acting head of the CU Natural History Museum. Alexander was a 50 year member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, an executive committee member of the Ecological Society of America, an editor of the journal Ecological Monographs, and the President of the Colorado-Wyoming Academy of Science. Dr. Alexander published over 50 scientific articles. His interest in the teaching of biology led him to also author three general biology books and several laboratory manuals. During his tenure at the University, Alexander also had 36 masters and 10 doctoral students.

During the spring and summer seasons of 1958-1960 Gordon Alexander conducted an extensive survey of the grasshoppers that were found along an elevational gradient within Colorado's Front Range (Alexander and Hilliard 1969). This project resulted in the processing of thousands of grasshoppers and led to the creation of a very important voucher collection. This collection is now housed in the CU Museum of Natural History's Entomology Section.

This biography will introduce Gordon Alexander as a person and as a biologist and teacher. It includes information about his youth, his time teaching in Siam, and his years at the University of Colorado.

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