Obituary of Dr. Richard James Alexander

Dr. Richard James Alexander, M.D. passed away on Saturday March 21, 2020, at the age of 91, after a brief illness. His illness was not related to the current COVID-19 pandemic.  

Richard (Dick) Alexander was a direct descendant of Reuben Hornsby, a surveyor for Stephen F. Austin in 1832. Reuben Hornsby settled in what would become Travis County. Dick Alexander was born on August 3, 1928 in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Robert and Loretta (Evanson) Alexander. His mother, Loretta, died when Dick was a year old, and his father subsequently married Dorotha. Dick and his older brother Bob eventually were joined by younger brother Jack and sister Joyce. The Alexanders moved to Robert Sr.’s home state of Texas and Dick grew up in Cameron, Hillsboro, and Austin.

Dr. Alexander often spoke fondly of traveling to Chicago to visit the family of his biological mother, who had come to Chicago from Ireland. He attended Austin High School and the University of Texas. Along the way he spent a couple of years as a cryptographic code clerk for the US Army on the US Army Air Force base at St. John’s, Newfoundland. 

Dr. Alexander obtained his medical degree and completed a psychiatry residency at the UT Medical Branch in Galveston. Dr. Alexander’s psychiatric career included private practice and work in the Texas State Hospital system in Austin and Big Spring.  He was the first medical director of what was then called the Austin Travis County Mental Health and Mental Retardation Center (“MHMR”).  He was instrumental in establishing an inpatient psychiatric unit at Holy Cross Hospital in East Austin.

Dr. Alexander was an occasional lecturer at the University of Texas, and happened to be teaching there on August 1, 1966, when Charles Whitman killed 14 people and wounded 31 others from within the UT tower.  Dr. Alexander was one of two physicians who briefly examined the sniper in the tower after Whitman had been killed by police officers. 

Dr. Alexander was very proud to have been one of the founders of the People’s Free Clinic of Austin in 1970.  The clinic initially operated two nights per week out of the basement of the Congregational Church just off Guadalupe Street (the Drag). In those early operations, the Clinic was entirely staffed by volunteer doctors and nurses. The mostly-young clientele would line up outside the church and wait to be called in for their visit with a doctor. The clinic eventually received public funding and became the present-day People’s Community Clinic. 

Dick Alexander had five children with his first wife, Harriet DeWitt. Dick was predeceased by his wife, Susan Nyland, who died in 2012. Dick and Susan had a son, Ian. Dick is survived by five of his six children, Elizabeth, Barbara, Susan, Richard, Jr., and Ian. He is predeceased by his oldest son with Harriet, Charles, who died in 2016.

Dick Alexander is also survived by spouses of his children, and by seven grandchildren, one great grandchild, and several nieces and nephews. Dick’s brothers and sister predeceased him. Dick is also survived by, and the family is extremely grateful to, his caregiver for the past decade, Oran. In light of the current COVID-19 pandemic, no services are planned at this time. Memorial donations can be made to the People’s Community Clinic at https://www.austinpcc.org/make-a-gift.