Former SciTech official lived life of logic

David Alexander had one motto that guided his life.

“He always said, ‘Your belief is your most important possession because, wherever you put your belief, your entire life follows,” said Shawn Carlson, Alexander's best friend and former colleague at Aurora's SciTech Hands On Museum.

“He felt that before you give your belief to someone, you've got to make sure they've got the goods. You must question and test,” Carlson said.

Alexander, 66, put his motto to work as the former deputy director of SciTech, while devoting the rest of his life to other logic-based endeavors. He died Tuesday afternoon while investigating a water leak at a West Side rental property he owned, Aurora fire officials said.

Alexander was called to the building on the first block of May Street around 2 p.m. by a tenant complaining of water leaking through the ceiling, his wife Cassidy told fire officials. After tracing the leak to the attic, he went to find the source.

Cassidy said she soon heard a thud upstairs, then found Alexander unresponsive. Alexander was taken to Provena Mercy Medical Center in Aurora, where he was pronounced dead at 2:44 p.m., firefighters said.

They said the cause of death will not be determined until an autopsy is performed, but they do not suspect foul play. Cassidy Alexander said she believes faulty or old wiring may have played a role.

Alexander came to SciTech in 2007, when Carlson was hired as its new director. Alexander moved from Southern California with his wife, a portrait artist who now owns a studio in Aurora.

“I brought him in because he was my most trusted friend and adviser,” Carlson said. “He has the greatest street smarts, great people skills and I thought he would make an ideal deputy.”

But both men were let go in October 2009 as SciTech struggled with financial woes, despite Alexander volunteering to cut half his pay and Carlson deferring his entire check that summer.

Board members said nearly $500,000 in grants and revenue had dwindled, which also forced the museum to reduce all 20 of its staff members to part-time or volunteer status last year.

Even in his work before SciTech, said Carlson, Alexander was always using science-based logic and applying his motto. The two friends spent several years exposing fraudulent faith healers, and they also worked in the 1980s to calm what Carlson describes as “the great satanic panic.”

“We were working on a program to increase science literacy, get people to embrace scientific thinking, get them away from such supernatural thinking,” he said.

As many talk shows were exploring the rise of the occult, Alexander was writing articles for publications like “The Humanist” and appeared on Larry King's talk show.

Alexander also spent about 40 years as a traveling stage magician, working in venues such as cruise ships. Carlson said his friend apprenticed under some of the most prominent magicians in the world and is still highly respected in the industry.

Cassidy Alexander said her husband always carried three magic coins with him, so he could perform tricks for anyone he might meet.

She said Alexander was also an artist in the medium of silhouettes, which he could cut without drawing or tracing. The couple had recently entertained the idea of selling his work from her studio.

“He liked to do his own thing: he was a magician, cut silhouettes and even was a private detective for a while,” Cassidy said. “He collected skills. He could do almost anything.”

In addition, Alexander was the only authorized biographer of Gene Roddenberry, the man behind “Star Trek.” He penned “Star Trek Creator,” a book published in 1994.

“He was really just a really remarkable person,” said his wife.