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| Reverend Dr. William Hamilton Bill Alexander |
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Reverend Dr. William Hamilton Bill Alexander
Reverend Dr. William Hamilton Bill Alexander, born 1915-01-10 in Shelbyville, Missouri, was pastor of the First Christian Church of Oklahoma City until his death 1960-04-03.
He is the likely originator of the "sharpen the axe" quote frequently misattributed to Abraham Lincoln.
The earliest citation for a similar quote is this second hand account of a 1944 speech by Alexander:
[!quote] "Radio Church Ads Poor"1 On preparation he urged his hearers to study and prepare themselves, relating the instance of the lumberjack who said that if his life depended upon his ability to cut down a tree in five minutes he would spend three minutes sharpening his axe.
Death
This article lamenting the imminent demolition of the William Alexander Youth Center had lots of details, but the newspaper they cited was paywalled, so I transcribed 1960-04-04_durant-daily-democrat.
Legacy
In 2022 Alexander's "Church of Tommorow" was demolished. An article by the Oklahoman details its history.
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1944 December 2, Sooner State Press, "Radio Church Ads Poor", Quote Page 2, Column 2, Norman, Oklahoma. (Newspapers.com) ↩︎