Photo: Associated Press / Public domain (source: Wikimedia Commons)

Paul Alexander

ポール・アレグザンダー　/　ぽーる・あれぐざんだー

American writer

January 30, 1946 – March 11, 2024　・　Dallas, Texas, United States

Texas
writer
lawyer

My Take

What strikes me most about Paul Alexander is not the record itself but the defiance behind it. He caught polio at six and lived inside an iron lung for nearly seventy-two years, yet he refused to let that machine define the size of his life. He earned a law degree from UT Austin, practiced as an attorney, and wrote a book using a stick held in his mouth. I find that almost unbearably moving. We tend to measure resilience in dramatic gestures, but his was the quiet, daily kind. He passed in 2024, leaving a legacy of stubborn, beautiful persistence.

Overview

Paul Richard Alexander (January 30, 1946 – March 11, 2024) was an American paralytic polio survivor, attorney, and author. After contracting polio in 1952 at the age of six, he spent the remainder and vast majority of his life in an iron lung, and is currently recognized as the person to have spent the longest period of time occupying one at almost 72 years.

Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

1. Profile

Name (English): Paul Alexander
Name (Japanese): ポール・アレグザンダー
Reading: ぽーる・あれぐざんだー
Born: January 30, 1946 – March 11, 2024
Zodiac / Chinese zodiac: Aquarius / Dog
Origin: Dallas, Texas, United States
Blood type: Private
Height: Private
Agency: Private
Occupation: writer / lawyer

2. Background

Elementary school: Private
Junior high: Private
High school: Private
University: University of Texas at Austin

3. Relationships

Spouse: Private
Children: Private
Parents: Private
Siblings: Private

4. Personality

Motto

Private

5. Works & records

Category	Title	Role	Year
Notable work	Three Minutes for a Dog	—

6. Links

Wikipedia (Japanese)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul%20Alexander%20(polio%20survivor)

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