A Man of Action

I wasn’t going to blog today until I got an email from a friend reminding me that today is the year anniversary of a childhood friend who passed away suddenly. It’s weird to think a year ago at this time I was attending two funerals in one week, my Grandfather and John Alexander’s. The email today is what sparked me to write this blog, because it reminded me that life can be too short and to always live it to the fullest.

The video below is a 6 minute recap of what John had been doing the years prior to his death, produced and MC’d by Ted Koppel who as you will see was a close friend of John’s and spoke at his funeral. It is a pretty fascinating look into his life and the story is rather emotional, whether you know John personally or not.

I knew John from grade school, growing up in the same grade and running around with the same people in high school. Since high school, John ventured out and become a well established journalist who hardly ever was in Cincinnati anymore. At the time of his death, John was in Chongqing, China working for Koppel On Discover. John passed away instantly when he suffered heart failure due to a mysterious case of Myocarditis (inflammation of the heart). No one will ever know for sure what caused the Myocarditis, as many viruses, bugs or bacteria can lead to the rare disorder.

The email I got today was to take a moment out of your day and do something nice or helpful for another human being to honor John, as John was a man of his actions…not his words. So today, do something nice for someone not only for John but for anyone else in your life you love that is here today or has passed. Since John’s passing his friends and family have started the The John Alexander Project, which is dedicated to enacting social change through journalism and enables independent thinkers to tell stories that inspire action.


Although John is not a man of words, one of my favorite quotes is from John, this is how he explained his passion for journalism to a friend:

“Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels. The round pegs in the square holes, the ones who see things just a bit differently. They are not fond of rules, and they fear the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them, because they change things, they push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, I see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who actually do.”