The first black man to graduate from the College of Engineering in 1943, Walter Gilbert Alexander II was a scholar and a leader. Walter G. Alexander II, named after his great uncle, was born in Petersburg, VA in 1922 into a family of doctors and dentists. He and his family later moved to Orange, NJ where he was raised and lived next door to his great uncle (a physician who became the first black man to be elected to the New Jersey State Assembly in 1920, and the first black man appointed the New Jersey State Board of Health in 1939).
Dr. Alexander decided to pursue engineering despite his family’s traditions and expectations of a medical or dental subject of study. He graduated seventh in his class in 1943 from Rutgers College of Engineering with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Tau Beta Pi member (Engineering Honors Society). Dr. Alexander later trained in the military and was commissioned second lieutenant in June 1945 as a Tuskegee Airman. Due to the end of WWII, he was never called into service. With the influx of returning soldiers and an economy that did not traditionally offer many opportunities to the black community, the engineering job market was becoming flooded and opportunities were dwindling.
Dr. Alexander returned to his family roots and traditions. He went on to pursue dentistry at Howard University, where he served as class president. He graduated in 1952 with Doctorate in Dental Surgery. In the tradition of his great uncle, Dr. Alexander II was the 1st black man to be appointed to the New Jersey State Board of Dentistry in 1972. He practiced dentistry in South Orange, NJ from 1953 until earlier this year.