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William Hamilton Alexander is 41 and powerfully built (6 ft. 3½ in., 230 Ibs.), a preacher's son from Shelbyville. Mo., who dropped out of the University of Missouri after a year to be a nightclub master of ceremonies in St. Louis. But at 20 he changed his mind, took over a dilapidated little church in Stroud. Okla., and made up his college work at the same time, graduating cum laude from the University of Tulsa in 1939. After two years of graduate work at the University of Chicago and a year as pastor in Los Angeles, he was ready to move in on oil-rich Oklahoma City.
The "personal touch'' of a master of ceremonies has shaped Bill Alexander's whole ministry. "When Jesus walked the earth, people didn't line up in long rows to hear him." he said last week. "They gathered around him. So in our church we are bringing the congregation around the preacher . . . There shouldn't be any chasm between a preacher and the people. I'm no special holy person. I'm the same kind of guy as you are. The only difference is that I've taken as my profession the promotion of Christianity."