Lt. Colonel Stewart F. Alexander

Photo: Newlyweds Lt. Col. Stewart F. Alexander, medical consultant in chemical warfare, and Lt. Col. Bernice Wilbur, Director of American Nurses in the North African theater, cutting their wedding cake after their marriage. Algiers, Algeria. 29 April. 1944. U.S. Army Signal Corps photograph, from the collection of The National WWII Museum.

Lt. Colonel Stewart F. Alexander was a physician and cardiologist turned chemical weapons expert, who led the investigation into the Bari disaster in World War II.

Dr. Alexander was initially educated at the Staunton Military Academy in Virginia, and then went on to Dartmouth College in New Hampshire where he received his bachelor degree. He decided to follow in his father Samuel’s footsteps and pursue a medical career. He attended medical school at Dartmouth College for two years, and then transferred to Columbia University where he received his medical degree in 1937. His initial internship was at Bellevue Hospital. In 1940 he entered into the military service where he served in World War II and was commissioned as a First Lieutenant and eventually became a Lieutenant Colonel. In 1941 he was assigned from the 1st Division to Medical Research Division of the United States Army as a consultant on chemical warfare medicine. He invented a new eyeglass that could be worn under gas masks, and in 1942 turned his patent on this device over to the United States Army.

December 2, 2013 marked the 70th anniversary of the German air raid on Bari, Italy. The unexpected attack resulted in the sinking of 27 ships and crippled the Allied port for over three months. Among the destroyed vessels was the US Liberty ship John Harvey. Laden with 2,000 secret mustard gas bombs, the munitions exploded sending a cloud of sulfur mustard vapor and leaking liquid mustard into the water. As a result 628 casualties suffered from mustard gas exposure, along with hundreds of Italian civilians. Due to the sheer scale of the surprise attack along with the loss of life, the German air raid on Bari became known as the “Little Pearl Harbor.”

During the aftermath of the attack, British and US officials sought to conceal the cargo carried by the John Harvey for fear that the existence of Allied chemical weapons might provoke Germany into a preemptive strike. Unaware of the presence of mustard gas, medical personnel attended to the severely injured first, simply wrapping uninjured sailors pulled from the contaminated water in blankets. This resulted in prolonged exposure to the chemical agent, causing chemical burns and blindness. As the medical crisis became dire, the US dispatched a member of Eisenhower’s medical staff Lieutenant Colonel Stewart Francis Alexander. Trained in the treatment of mustard gas exposure Dr. Alexander quickly confirmed presence of the chemical agent and despite denials from his chain of command, insisted upon treating patients accordingly. Dr. Alexander even saved skin tissue samples which were later instrumental in the development of methlorethamine, an early form of chemotherapy used to treat cancer.

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Dr. Stewart F. Alexander, a retired New Jersey internist and cardiologist, died on Friday at the vacation house of a daughter on the Caribbean Island of Mustique. He was 77 years old and lived in Park Ridge, N.J.

He died of skin cancer, said his sister-in-law, Marian Vafiades.

Dr. Alexander was born in Park Ridge, went to Dartmouth College and earned his M.D. at Columbia University in 1937. He served in World War II.

He was a former president of the Bergen County Medical Society and the New Jersey Academy of Medicine.

He is survived by his wife, the former Bernice M. Wilbur; two daughters, Diane Sugden, the owner of the Mustique house, who lives in Tuxedo Park, N.J., and Judith Connelly of Amherst, Mass.; a sister, Helen Abrams of Westwood, N.J., and six grandchildren.