William Alexander was born in 1925 in Beaufort, N.C. He received his M.S.E.E. degree from the University of Michigan and an M.S.E.E. degree from the University of Virginia before joining the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1955, where he served as its chairman from 1968 to 1975
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From 1975 to 1980 he was the chancellor of the California State University system, and from 1981 to 1985 he was president of San Diego State University, where he also served as chancellor for two years. He is presently professor emeritus of Electrical Engineering at the University of California at Berkeley and is a fellow of the IEEE and AAAS, as well as an honorary member of the IEEE Power & Energy Society.