At the end of this month, as we sing Auld Lang Syne on New Year’s Eve, we will remember “auld” acquaintances. As the calendar turns over our thoughts turn naturally to reflection, and those who are no longer with us, and played a major role in our lives.
Last week Jim Winters, a retired Middleton school teacher, stopped in at InterVarsity’s national office in Madison and offered some reflections on InterVarsity’s former president, John Alexander, who died ten years ago, in 2002.
Alexander was chair of the University of Wisconsin Geography Department when he was chosen to lead InterVarsity in 1964. In moving InterVarsity’s national office to Madison, and presiding over its national campus ministry for 17 years, Alexander is one of the most important religious figures in Madison in the 20th century. But he was not broadly known in the local community.
The Dawn Patrol
Local residents who knew him well included a group of men at St. Andrews Episcopal Church who met with Alexander in a weekly Bible study called the Dawn Patrol. Madison police chief David Couper, who later retired and became an Episcopal priest, was one of them. Winters was another one.
Winters credited Alexander for being a major spiritual influence in his life, through the Bible study and through other personal contacts. “I’m humbled to talk about him,” said Winters. “Sometimes we meet men or women who stop us cold. We realize they were rocks. People like him you can’t forget. They play in your mind for the rest of your life.”
You can listen to a recording of Winters’ reflections, including comments about Alexander’s war record aboard a U.S. Navy vessel, his spiritual leadership, and a funeral that was more like a worship service of praise to God.
Winters said that Alexander’s counsel came at a critical point in his own career. Concerned over developments at Middleton High School, where he taught, Winters sought out Alexander for advice. With Alexander’s encouragment he was able to nurture the formation of a student Christian group at the school that provided some much-needed spiritual guidance for Middleton students at that crucial time.