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In memory of

Charles "Cake" Alexander

Lexington, VA, USA

January 1, 1930 - March 19, 2021

Jan 1, 1930 - Mar 19, 2021

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Charles 'Cake' Alexander was born on January 1st, 1930 in the Nationally Historic Stonewall Jackson House, Lexington, Virginia. Raised in a house his uncles and grandfather built on Diamond Hill, overlooking the valley of the small southern college town, "Cake" (as his family affectionately called him), grew up in the house with his: mother Catherine, aunts Harriet, Bertistine and Jane, as well as uncles Robert and Walter.

At the age of twelve, Charles Alexander ventured over the Mason-Dixon Line with his mother who accepted a job to help the Friedman family in Elkins Park, an outlying village of the ever-growing City of Philadelphia. Warmly welcomed into the home of Dr. Paul and Elise Friedman, Cake spent his teenage years as a student in the Cheltenham School district. He graduated from Cheltenham High School in 1951 appreciating a love of learning and enthusiasm for sports, playing many: football, wrestling, basketball, baseball and track & field.

Going to college an hour-and-a-half from home, Millersville State College was a school that provided a variety of opportunities where began to narrow his professional path for the complementary fields of education and athletics. As a Millersville Marauder, he was a three-sport letter winner with all-state honors in football, basketball and track; specifically, being named Most Valuable Player in 1951 for football and to the third team All-State Teachers Conference during 1952 for basketball. After earning his bachelor's degree from the college during the spring of 1955, he went on to serve in the United States Air Force during peacetime, joining just after the Korean War.

After transitioning from military service, Chuck returned to Philadelphia and began teaching history in the Philadelphia Public School District. His passion as an educator was in the classroom as well as on the athletic fields. During the late 1950s through the late 1970s, Chuck Alexander welcomed youth in the Philadelphia area to train and compete with a club that he founded: the LaMott Track Club. Many Junior Olympic champions came from this track club. As education was a way of life for him, he cultivated an enthusiasm to love running within the hearts, minds and muscles of age groupers. Through the years, he encountered a few coaches with whom he shared a similar passion and philosophy, evolving life-long bonds of friendship through collaboration and learning; together, they contributed to regional development of the sport and strengthened track & field in the greater Philadelphia area.

As the speed and success of athletes he coached evolved through nearly twenty years, so too did his professional opportunities. During 1977, Chuck accepted the opportunity to serve as head track & field coach at Temple University. For over twenty years, he broadened his ability to provide opportunities for young women and men to pursue their potential as student-athletes at the Division I level. Coaching at Temple University amplified his love of learning and sense of competition as he shared his passion with the athletes he welcomed as Owls into the university on North Broad Street.

Chuck Alexander was a coach who believed in commitment, work ethic and standards. He encouraged commitment with persevering through early morning as well as afternoon training on the campus track along 15th Street; sometimes enduring the shoveling of snow in the dead of winter. He emphasized work ethic, developing a focus to maintain form/technique no matter how fatigued a student-athlete became as well as cultivating the confidence student-athletes developed from the (seemingly unbelievable expectations of) workouts he planned. Standards were a core belief as progressing in the classroom academically for one's future as well as punctuality (as a bus leaves when it's supposed to...no matter "who" someone was). As an educator at the University level, Coach Chuck Alexander wanted his student-athletes to capitalize on every opportunity to improve themselves so they could graduate with an enriched confidence as young adults.]

Through the success of his student-athletes and support of his trusted coaches, Chuck Alexander, gained recognition from his peers in the U.S. track & field community by being awarded: Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Region II, Track Coach of the Year (1987); and appointed: assistant Women's Track Coach for the Olympic Sports Festival Team-East (1985 and 1989), head Women's East Team for the Olympic Sports Festival (1990) and head Track Coach for the Junior Pan Am Team (1991). During those twenty-two years, the Temple University Track & Field program rose to national prominence through the training, talent and hard work of: fifteen All-Americans, four Olympic Trial qualifiers and the teammates who trained and competed alongside each other for their four years as Temple Owls with the committed impassioned guidance of Chuck Alexander and the coaches he was able to share this chapter of his life.

After leaving Temple (and having retired from full-time public school teaching during 1996), Chuck Alexander eventually returned to coaching, joining as a volunteer assistant with the University of Pennsylvania and La Salle University. Eventually he returned to the slow pace of his childhood hometown of Lexington for the epilogue of his coaching career at Washington & Lee University, sharing his training expertise until retiring in 2009.

Charles Kenneth Alexander is survived by his wife, Gwen; children: Kelly, Dallas and Brandilyn; son-in-law Ryan Kist; as well as grandsons Charles Joseph and Daniel Walter. It is hoped that he will be remembered with sincere fondness by extended family, friends, athletes, colleagues and the track & field community.

A service for the family will be Saturday, March 27th in Lexington, VA. Saturday’s funeral will be streamed live on the First Baptist Church of Lexington, VA. Facebook page beginning at 11 am. Once on the site click on ‘Movies’ then ‘Videos’.

The family shall be planning a Philadelphia memorial celebration for friends which will be held on a date during the late spring.

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