William Alexander was the youngest of the Pi Kappa Alpha founders, born in New York on September 5, 1848 to theologian James Waddell Alexander. Although born in New York, part of Alexander's boyhood had been spent in Virginia and his preparatory work had been done in a Virginia school. During the Civil War, he lived for a time with is mother in England, his father having died in 1859. He attended the University of Virginia for three years where he studied classics, mathematics, and philosophy. Soon after leaving the University, Alexander was given a temporary position in the office of the Equitable Life Assurance Society, which had been organized 10 years before. He did his work so ably and satisfactorily that the temporary position proved good for more than 65 years! He married Frances Gordon Paddock in 1887 and they had one child, a daughter. The youngest of the Founders, Alexander also lived the longest, he died in 1937 at the age of 89. He is buried in Princeton, New Jersey.