Person

Alexander, Charles P. (Charles Paul), 1889-1981

Charles Paul Alexander was born on September 25, 1889, in Gloversville, New York.

He was an American entomologist and authority on the crane fly (Tipulidae). He earned his B.Sc. (1913) and Ph.D. (1918) from Cornell University. He worked as a Curator of the Snow Entomological Collection at the University of Kansas (1917-1919) and a Curator with the Illinois Natural History Survey (1919-1922). In 1922, he was appointed Assistant Professor at the Massachusetts Agricultural College faculty at Amherst (now the University of Massachusetts), where he remained for the rest of his career. He classified nearly 13,000 species of crane fly. The Smithsonian Institute holds his personal collection of crane flies. Upon his retirement in 1959, the University awarded him an honorary Doctor of Science degree. He was a Fellow of the Entomological Society of America. Alexander was a member of the Entomological Society of America (ESA) from 1910 until his death, serving as its President from 1941 to 1943. In 1976, he received the L. O. Howard Award for Distinguished Achievement in Entomology of the Eastern Branch of ESA. Alexander was also a Corresponding Member of the American Entomological Society, an Honorary Member of the National Pest Control Association, an Honorary Fellow of the Sociedad Chilean de Entomologia, an Honorary Member of the Kebun Raya Indonesia (Botanical Gardens of Indonesia), and a Fellow of the Entomological Society of London. In 1952, he was the recipient of the Bernardo O'Higgins Order of Merit of the government of Chile.

In 1917, he married Mable Marguerite Miller (1894–1979). He died on December 3, 1981, in Hampshire, Massachusetts.