Near the geographical center of the state and a little way  off U.S. Highway 80, a little community called Clarksburg grew up between Morton and Pelahatchie. 

A farming community, this was home for James and Lessye Alexander.  James worked as a mechanic on his father-in-law’s dairy farm.  It was hard times.  The depression was just beginning to give way to Roosevelt’s persistent New Deal policies, and life was still a struggle.  On April 25, 1936 Ted J. Alexander was born to James and Lessye.

“We walked to church and a lot of other places until the time I entered school,”   said Ted Alexander as he recalled his educational beginnings in Morton, Mississippi. “We had an old, rickety school bus; sometimes it got us there and sometimes it didn’t.” 

Young Ted and his family didn’t remain in Morton long.  His family was soon packing and moving to Algiers, Louisiana, where his father had landed a job with Missouri Pacific Trailways.  But Mississippi was still their home and within a few years the Alexander family moved back to Morton and later to Jackson where Ted finished high school.  While at Central High and living on North State Street, Pearl River Community College’s future president made a firm commitment to pursue an education career in the fields of teaching and coaching.

Ted participated in just about every facet of activity Central High had to offer including athletics, student government, and drama.  He played Archie Beaton in the school production of “Brigadoon”  and he was a Golden Gloves fighter, member of the swim team, played football, and ran track.

Ted also loved the outdoors. In fact, an early  passion was fishing. In 1952, at the age of 16, he won the National Field and Stream contest by catching a two pound and 2 ounce bream.

Alexander also loved to box and he was tenacious. In the January 25, 1955 edition of the Clarion Ledger, the lead story was about Mississippi’s annual Golden Gloves Tournament and Ted.

“Jackson’s Ted Alexander furnished the heroics by leaving a sick bed with 101 fever, after having been scratched from the tournament, and coming on to win the final fight of the evening...” the second paragraph read.  “Alexander won his popular nod over a clumsy and out-classed Bob Davis of Benton.”

When Ted graduated from high school, he entered nearby Millsaps College, majoring in English with an emphasis on American Literature.  He graduated in 1958, earning his bachelors degree.  He didn’t stop there, however.  He stayed on for another year and received a second certification in the Biological Sciences.

From Millsaps, Ted went to work at Meadville, wearing many hats.  He was the biology and physical science teacher, junior high science teacher, football coach, basketball coach, and baseball coach, and he was the newspaper and student council sponsor.  He also enrolled in Mississippi College and began working on a master’s degree.

On July 23, 1961 he and his sweetheart, Barbara, were married in nearby Providence Baptist Church.

While enrolled at Mississippi College, he received a National Science Foundation Fellowship in the Biological Sciences and did advanced graduate work at Louisiana Polytechnic Institute at Ruston, Louisiana.  In 1964, he earned a master’s from Mississippi College with two majors: one in administration, and the other in guidance.  That same year, he moved from coaching and teaching at Meadville to become guidance counselor and assistant principal there.  Two years later, in 1966, Ted became the principal of the Franklin County Attendance Center in Meadville, where he stayed until 1969, when he became the principal of Pascagoula High School.

In 1972, while at Pascagoula, Ted was honored as the recipient of the Hardin Scholar Award of the Phil Hardin Foundation.  He took a one year Sabbatical for Residency in a Doctoral Program at the University of Southern Mississippi and received his doctorate there in 1973.  His major was Educational Administration with emphasis in School Law, Public School Administration, and School Finance. After earning his doctorate, he returned as principal at Pascagoula High School for a year.

In 1974, Dr. Alexander became the Superintendent of Schools for the Newton Special Municipal Separate School District in Newton, Mississippi.  He was there for only two years, when the McComb School District discovered his talents and made him the Superintendent of Schools in McComb.  He remained in McComb for ten years. 

During his tenure at McComb, Dr. Alexander’s talents and foresight blossomed.  With 3,200 students under his wing, he led the school system into the eighties, determined to provide his students with the highest quality education.  This was reflected in the increased curriculum, a faculty that was motived by enthusiasm, and an unusual number of grants that were awarded to the McComb School District.

While increasing the school systems curriculum, he increased the requirements for graduation, from the state required 16 to 19 units.  He also enhanced the computer center and expanded services to include accounting and grade reporting. He shared the computer center’s success with school districts across several states.

Upgrading the math and science departments at the McComb schools were another area of emphasis.  Certain requirements were set in place for each course level, and the students were expected to reach those requirements before they passed the course.  All of these innovations led to McComb’s school system being recognized as a national model school. 

Dr. Alexander visited Washington in November of 1983 to receive this award for the McComb schools from President Ronald Reagan, and the Secretary of Education, Terrell Bell.

The May 1984 issue of Omni magazine featured a five page spread on public schools in Mississippi.  The McComb School District, under Dr. Alexander’s direction, occupied almost two pages of the article, and was spotlighted as the one real stab at educational reform in the entire state.

Two years and two months after the magazine article hit the newsstands, Dr. Alexander was tackling a new challenge.  His new responsibilities included donning a construction helmet, a businessman’s hat, a legislative lobbyist cap, but most importantly a college president’s mortarboard.

Ted J. Alexander became the ninth president of Pearl River Community College on July 1, 1986 and it is safe to say “The River” will never again be the same.

Dr. Alexander’s enthusiasm and innovative talents displayed in McComb came to fruition here at Pearl River College.

When he took over in the summer of 1986, Pearl River, the first junior college in the state, was sporting a $6 million plus budget and about 1500 students.

Dr. Alexander immediately began building and expanding on the strong foundation left to his care.  Over the next 14 years, Dr. Alexander would feverishly lead PRCC streaming and sometimes screaming into the twenty-first century.

In November 1986, Dr. Alexander wrote an article in one of the first issues of the RiverSide about the importance of education in economic development.  He said economic problems can best be addressed in essence by the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that the local workforce possesses.

Dr. Alexander’s plan in the mid-eighties was to make sure the citizens of the Pearl River College six-county supporting district would have access to the best educational curriculum and most up-to-date physical plant possible.

“Our goal is to provide the citizens of our district with the opportunity to have a better quality of life,” Dr. Alexander said hundreds of times over the years.

With nearly $40 million in new construction and renovation projects completed or approved and more than 3000 students enrolled, and with some type of program contact with another 10,000 persons each year, Pearl River College is set to be an educational beacon of the new century.

Even when you are totally focused and paddling hard, sometimes the water gets a little choppy and rough. Dr. Alexander’s years were not all smooth sailing.   Funding had to be secured for major construction projects, new and emerging technology and allied health programs had to be created from scratch, and the overall vision and goal had to be disseminated and made clear.

Sometimes it was easier to raise millions of dollars than to change the way things were done in the past.  A good example of “ruffling feathers” was when he proposed the transfer of the vocational-technical centers located in Purvis, Bay St. Louis and Hattiesburg. Audit reports indicated that the college was spending almost $500,000 per year educating high school students from those areas.

Alexander explained the deficit to the 16-member Board of Trustees in January 1989 and by 1990 the board voted to transfer the centers in Lamar County and Hancock County to the local school districts.  The Forrest County Center facilities were not released, instead, the programs were transferred. PRCC was now focusing on and funding programs just for its students.

Technology has always been high on Alexander’s list of priorities. Early on in his tenure at PRCC he  talked the Pearl River County Supervisors into helping fund a new Technology Center on the Poplarville campus and Forrest County officials into funding an Allied Health Center in Hattiesburg.  At the same time he requested assistance from Lamar, Marion, Jefferson Davis, and Hancock counties to build two new dormitories and a two-story Science and Math complex.

Dr. Alexander had been at Pearl River for a short time and he was already asking for commitments and a lot of money.  Everything standing still was being painted and spruced up. Oak trees and flower beds were planted and building projects were springing up across campus.

Dr. Alexander envisioned more participation from the alumni and local businesses so be started the Office of Development Foundation and Alumni Affairs.  He wanted PRCC to have its fair share of private and government grants so he implemented a full scale Research Administration and Grants Department.  To date, more than $4 million has been raised by the Development Foundation and more than $50 million through Research and Grants.

And while campus activity was in full stride by the early 1990’s President Alexander was calling for more literacy training, advanced technology, advanced manufacturing, and student and employee wellness.  At the ribbon cutting ceremony for the new science and math complex he said more immediate planning and more preparation were needed in order that the local workforce could compete in a global market by 2000. Dr. Alexander wanted students, faculty and staff to have a fuller, richer life. He spent long hours lobbying the legislature for salary increases and bond money for better facilities.

He also started planning a new nursing building which included a unique wellness center concept and for an advanced technology center. Both projects took years of constant planning and old fashioned selling.   The Nursing and Wellness Center took more than eight years to finish. The Advanced Technology Center turned into a five-year battle ground in the Mississippi Legislature.

In August 1992, PRCC received a $457,247 Title III Grant, the next month a dedication was held for the Allied Health Center. In 1993, PRCC started participating in the Rural Health Corps, and all of the junior colleges were linked through the high-tech Community College Network.  A brand new, and much needed, cafeteria was being built in 1993. It opened to raves from students and staff in January 1994.  Also in 1994, a $667,000 computer system was approved and  renovation of Crosby Hall into a student life building was started. PRCC was also implementing its “One Stop Career Center” concept.

The 1995 year brought a visit by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and the selection of PRCC college personnel to study technical training in Japan.  By May the college had reached its $125,000 Endowment Challenge and another $250,000 was accessed from the U.S. Department of Education. The college was well on its way to meeting a projected $1 million endowment.  In November of 1995, after almost eight years of planning, bids were selected for the Nursing Building and Wellness Center.  In December officials received word that the college had been reaccredited for another 10 years.

In 1996, nearly $500,000 of work was completed, but not necessarily seen, as water and sewer lines were reworked. A new towering water tank was also added to the skyline. 

By 1997, the fruit of the early 1990s were being recognized in the state and nation. Allied health programs were named exemplary by the National Council of Instructional Administrators and by several state agencies.  In August, the Nursing Building and Wellness Center was dedicated with Senator Thad Cochran delivering the address. By the end of the year $2 million worth of fiber optic lines connected every building on campus. Students were now blessed with individual telephones, cable service and access to the Internet from their dorm room.
 In the summer of 1998, Dr. Alexander was named to head the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges into the year 2000. 

Highlights of 1999 were the approval by the Mississippi Legislature of  a $5 million Advanced Technology Center to be located in Hattiesburg and the completion of the two-story Administration Building on the Poplarville campus.  After years of hard work and dedication, both massive projects were crowning accomplishments for Dr. Alexander.
 But Ted J. is not the kind of person who puts the gear shift in neutral near the finish line. Pearl River and Huff Halls are being renovated at this time, a new mechanical building is nearing completion and plans are in the works for a new $1.2 million student center.  The $1 million dollars needed to access $4 million from the state for the Advanced Technology Center has been raised.

Over the years, Dr. Alexander never let up. Like most strong willed and energetic leaders, not everything he did was the most popular thing to do. But he was always consistent and determined and he always wanted the best for all those Pearl River College served.

He will leave Pearl River financially sound and well respected within the state, across the region and nation. 
Dr. Alexander’s vision and determination over the past 14 years will certainly provide the citizens of Forrest, Hancock, Jefferson Davis, Lamar, Marion and Pearl River counties with an excellent opportunity for a better way of life for years to come.