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ORONO – The simple things in life brought her joy, and, in turn, Michele Alexander brought laughter to everyone she knew.
Alexander, a University of Maine professor, a wife, a mother and a friend, died in a car accident Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2003, in Glenburn at age 37. Her friends, family and colleagues gathered to celebrate Alexander’s life at UMaine’s Maine Center for the Arts on Friday afternoon.
Throughout the nearly three-hour ceremony, stories from the many whose were touched by Alexander captivated the 200 people in attendance.
During the memorial service, pictures of the Texas native flashed on a large screen, showing a perpetually smiling face surrounded by family, friends and students who loved her.
Even before the car crash, Alexander had been through a lot in life. She lost an eye in an accident at age 8, endured hospital stays and surgery stemming from two bouts of meningitis, and later in life survived cancer. But nothing ever seemed to get her down.
“Michele was tough,” her father, Bob Grossman, said. “But you couldn’t see it.” His angelic little girl was always compassionate and caring, he said.
When the accident occurred, Alexander had been in the midst of one of her usual compassionate acts. She was on her way to drop off Camden, her 11-month-old son, at UM’s Child Care Center and deliver gingerbread cookies she had made the night before to co-workers. Camden Alexander was not injured in the accident.
For the memorial, Frank’s Bakery donated warm gingerbread cookies, which were served to guests in the lobby.
Described by UM Provost and Executive Vice President Robert Kennedy as “the epitome of a perfect faculty member,” Alexander was valued, respected and loved by colleagues and students.
“[She was] a researcher of the first caliber,” said Wendy Wood, Alexander’s dissertation adviser from Texas A&M University.
But what appeared to be the social psychology professor’s greatest accomplishment was passing on her love of the field to her students.
“Michele was the kind of person that made you want to change your major,” said Cindy Truex, one of Alexander’s former students at Ohio University.
Comments read from student evaluations described Alexander as passionate, brilliant, upbeat, enthusiastic, fun and caring. Her desire to see her students succeed in life went beyond the classroom as well.
“She made us all feel better about ourselves in the classroom and away from there,” Klaus Cobb, another former Ohio University student said.
And Alexander brought that passion for learning and for her students with her when she came to UMaine’s psychology department from Ohio in the fall of 1999.
“It was really like getting an injection of energy,” UM colleague Jeff Hecker said. Alexander was described by co-workers as having a tremendous work ethic with ideas about everything.
“When you worked with Michele on a project, a lot got accomplished, but you laughed a lot along the way,” Hecker said.
“There’s not a single memory that doesn’t involve laughter,” college friend Marnie Tomasello said. The same was true for all who shared memories of Alexander.
“No one made me laugh like you,” Alexander’s friend Judy Ouelette read from a poem she wrote on the way to Alexander’s funeral.
As Alexander’s family and friends shared snippets of moments they spent with her, each relayed in their own way that they plan to carry on her legacy by spreading the knowledge, passion for life, and enjoyment of the simple things that she so selflessly gave to them.
The conclusion of Friday’s memorial service brought everyone in attendance to their feet as Steven Alexander held the couple’s son and everyone sang the song that echoed the sentiments of Michele Alexander’s life – “Simple Gifts.”
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