(1920-2023)
Edward Alexander of Bethesda, Maryland, died on October 5, 2023, at the age of 103. He was a career diplomat in the Foreign Service during the Cold War, where he served as a public affairs officer in West Berlin; Budapest, Hungary; Athens, Greece; and East Berlin, GDR. He played a key role during the visits of President Kennedy to Berlin in 1963 and Richard Nixon to Bucharest in 1969. During his tour as deputy director for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, Alexander traveled across the Soviet bloc to oversee American press and cultural affairs, at that time he was the highest-ranking Armenian-American official in the U.S. government.
After earning a degree in musicology from Columbia University followed by a master’s degree from the Columbia School of Journalism, he entered the United States Army during World War II, serving in Europe on the staffs of Generals Eisenhower and Bradley in the psychological warfare division. After the war, he worked as Sir Laurence Olivier’s public relations director on the two Shakespeare films “Henry V” and “Hamlet”. In 1950 he joined the Voice of America, organizing broadcasts to Soviet Armenia, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Tatarstan, and was appointed head of the Armenian service, where he remained for ten years.
After his service in the Foreign Service, he served on the International Broadcasting Council, overseeing broadcasts of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty, at the Department of State in the Freedom of Information Division, and was a spokesperson of three international conferences on human rights. He served as official escort and interpreter during the White House visit of Catholicos Vazgen I with President Bush in the Oval Office as well as during the visit of former Armenian President Levon Ter-Petrosyan. Shortly after Armenia’s independence, Alexander was invited to Armenia to serve as an advisor to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
He has lectured on Armenia at the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR), the Fletcher School of Diplomacy at Tufts University, the Library of Congress, the Armenian Embassy and in several universities. Alexandre wrote three books: The snake and the bees – on the attempt to recruit the Soviet KGB which lasted 15 years; A crime of revenge – on the Berlin trial for the assassination of Talaat Pasha; And Opus – a novel about two Armenian diplomats’ search for a stolen Beethoven manuscript.
After the 1988 earthquake, he served as chairman of the St. Mary’s Church earthquake committee, raising nearly $400,000 in donations and clothing. He also served as chairman of the scholarship committee of the William E. Docter Fund, which distributes scholarships to young Armenians throughout the country. Alexander was an avid tennis player for over ninety years, a golfer, a jazz authority, and an avid gin martini drinker.
He was born in New York in 1920 to John der Alexanian, an Armenian genocide survivor, and Nevart Faljian Alexanian.
Alexander is survived by his wife Roseann, son Mark and wife JoAnn Palazzo of Franklin, Tennessee, and Wellington, Florida; his son Scott and his wife Cathy Davis of Boca Raton, FL; his son Christian and his wife Arlene Saryan of Washington, DC and Thousand Oaks, California, and five grandchildren, Derek, Maya, Miranda, Garen and Sean Alexander.
At a later date yet to be determined, a memorial service will be held and his remains will be laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, DC.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be made in his memory to the traveling doctors (for refugees from Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh) at www.travelingdoctors.org or by mail: Traveling Doctors, 175 Sand Key Estates Dr., Clearwater Beach, FL 33767, or to the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research at naasr.orgor by mail: NAASR, 395 Concord Ave., Belmont, MA 02478.
Guest contributions to the Armenian Weekly are informative articles or press releases written and submitted by members of the community.
