Will Winton Alexander was born on July 15, 1884 in Morrisville, Missouri. Alexander was a Methodist minister who served on the Commission for Interracial Cooperation, as vice president of the Rosenwald Fund, administrator of the Farm Security Commission (appointed 1937), and Atlanta-based divisional director of the Interchurch World Movement of North America. He died in Chapel Hill, North Carolina on January 13, 1956.