Veteran Newsday reporter Michael Alexander, 77, dies

Veteran reporter Michael Alexander, who died last month, knew a good story when he saw one, his Newsday colleague and friend of more than 30 years, Alvin Bessent, reminisced this week.

"Mike always loved the story. He got excited about it — even after twentysome years as a reporter, a good story was still getting him pumped up," said Bessent, who worked in the newsroom with Alexander and later joined the paper’s editorial board.

Of course, Alexander relished the headline-grabbing news: Housing segregation on Long Island. One of New York City’s worst subway crashes. Long Beach’s policy to drive out poor residents in the name of economic revival. The 1993 mass shooting on a Long Island Rail Road train in Nassau County by a passenger who opened fire at random.

But then there were the more humble examples, such as the profile of an Iraqi Jew exiled from the only home he ever knew. Alexander cherished those stories, too.

Alexander died of cancer on May 20, said his wife of 25 years, Lisa Weeks Alexander. He was 77 and a resident of the Caribbean island St. Maarten, where he moved soon after retiring from Newsday and opened a bed-and-breakfast a year later.

At Newsday, according to Michael Alexander’s resume, he served as a general assignment reporter — a beat covering a variety of topics. He also reported on special projects.

Alexander worked on stories demanding same-day turnaround, and multipart series requiring in-depth investigating, interviewing and analysis.

He was part of teams that won the Pulitzer Prize — news journalism's highest honor: in 1992, for stories on one of the worst subway disasters in New York City history, in which the train operator was later charged with killing five passengers and injuring more than 200 following a derailment at the Union Square station; and in 1984, as one of the Newsday reporters covering the federal government’s involvement with groups against abortion rights.

Although he worked on Long Island, he never lived there and mostly resided in New York City and New Jersey.

Michael Ladd Alexander, who went by Mike, was born on June 14, 1943, at Good Samaritan Hospital in Sandusky, Ohio, to Willis Bell Alexander, the head burner at the Farrell-Cheek foundry, and Thelma Elizabeth Bryant, a housewife. He was the fourth of the couple’s six children.

Raised Baptist as a young child, he and his family had become Jehovah’s Witnesses by the time he was 10.

To his family, Michael Alexander was known as a dancer and lover of games: "King of Monopoly" as a child, and later, on St. Maarten, he became known as the "King of Quiddler," described as a combination of Scrabble and gin rummy.

In 1961, Alexander graduated from high school in Sandusky and attended Ohio State University on a track scholarship, studying journalism and graduating in 1965. He attended Howard University law school for a year before going into journalism — an internship at Newsday.

He worked at the newspaper from 1969 until 1995, when he took a buyout, according to Calvin Lawrence Jr., Newsday’s director of community affairs and newsroom development.

Alexander also was a leader in the early years of the National Association of Black Journalists.

Through the years, he taught at Columbia University, the former C.W. Post College, Queens College and SUNY Old Westbury.

On St. Maarten, he taught GED classes as well as college journalism and English.

Monte R. Young, who started at Newsday in 1987 and is now an assistant managing editor there, said Alexander offered advice not just on writing but also on life — "and especially having a life outside of the newsroom."

"He felt that it helped round the person out as an individual," Young said of Alexander, a groomsman in his wedding. "It exposed him to different environments, different cultures, all of which he felt would make you a better person as a journalist."

And Alexander followed his own advice.

In his post-Newsday life, he lectured, was an avid and accomplished golfer and helped run Above La Mer, a bed-and-breakfast on St. Maarten he founded with his wife.

He met Weeks Alexander, his second wife, at a golf tournament in Jamaica.

Once his score equaled his age, she said, he decided to quit the sport. "He said, ‘I’ve had enough.’ "

His marriage to his first wife, Charlotte D. Alexander, ended in divorce in 1994.

In addition to Weeks Alexander, Michael Alexander is survived by siblings Errol D. Alexander and Grayce Harmon, both of Sandusky, and Deborah Sparks and Tamara Thivierge, both of Atlanta; a son, Todd Alexander, also of Atlanta; and a grandchild. His brother Roger predeceased him.

Michael Alexander was cremated, and a memorial service in the United States is forthcoming.

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.