William DeWitt Alexander (April 2, 1833 – February 21, 1913) was an educator, author and linguist in the Kingdom of Hawaii and Republic of Hawaii. He then constructed maps for the Territory of Hawaii.
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Early life
Alexander was born in Honolulu April 2, 1833. His father was missionary William Patterson Alexander and mother Mary Ann McKinney. He was named after William Radcliffe DeWitt (1792–1867) a Presbyterian pastor of his mother, who convinced her and her brother Edmund McKinney to become missionaries.
He graduated from Punahou School in 1849, and traveled to New England to enroll at Yale.
He received a BA degree from Yale in 1855 as Salutatorian, a Master of Arts in 1858, and was a member of Skull and Bones. He returned to Hawaii and joined the faculty of Punahou School as a professor of Greek and history.
He married Abigail Charlotte Baldwin (1833–1913), daughter of missionary Dwight Baldwin in 1861.
He became the fourth president of Oahu College in the summer of 1864, replacing Cyrus T. Mills. Mills and his wife Susan Tolman Mills then founded Mills College.