Local entrepreneur, community champion Geva Alexander turns 99

Geva Alexander took a risk 60 years ago that few women in Dublin would have dared. She became an entrepreneur. Recently, she enjoyed another opportunity most people never have. She celebrated her 99th birthday June 16.

In the mid-1960s, she opened Alexander Printing Company. The business has had several names over the years. Likely, Alexander Office Equipment is the best remembered among long-time Dublin residents. Today, it’s Alexander’s. It sits on the corner of Academy Avenue behind the main post office. 

As the owner, Geva became one of the first successful businesswomen in Dublin. And she never officially retired. She goes to the office most afternoons and greets customers.

Her name is Genevieve. Her mother shortened it to “Geva” because friends had begun calling her “Jenny.” Geva said that her mother decided to take charge of nicknames and gave her Geva. A native of Gardi, Georgia, in rural Wayne County near Jesup, she is the only child of George and Emma Bertat Harper. Emma was George’s WWI French war bride.

Geva was a student at Agnes Scott College when she met Louis Alexander, an Emory University student. They married in 1947 and came back to Louis’ home in Dublin. From 1957-1962, she taught biology at Dublin High School. One year, the Star Student chose her Star Teacher. At the same time, she and Louis were bringing up three children: Paul, George and Nannette.

Geva moved from teaching to business almost by accident. A friend who was closing his office supply store asked her to help him. He said he was tired of the store and just wanted to be rid of it. Geva offered to buy it, but he tried to give it to her instead. She declined and went to her bank to borrow the $2,000 purchase price. 

The banker turned her down. “He said he couldn’t approve a loan for me unless Louis came with me,” she said. Louis went, and Geva got her loan.

Geva said she knew nothing about selling office supplies, but she knew how to run a store. Her parents had owned a store in Baxley where she went every afternoon after school and helped.

When the business moved to its current location, Louis left his father’s timber operation and joined the company. Nannette came in 1977. The Alexanders saw an opportunity early on to become a much-needed, dependable source of office equipment. 

Geva met needs as she saw them. The original group that formed to shore up downtown Dublin was the Downtown Merchants Association. Geva was an active member and office holder. When the organization morphed into the Downtown Dublin Development Authority, she stayed involved.

Geva also made time for a full schedule outside of work. She was active in Immaculate Conception Catholic Church’s prison ministry. She served on the board of trustees of Oconee Fall Line Tech, was a member of the Georgia Southern University Business Advisory Council and organized the Dublin Women Business Owners’ Educational Council.

In 1988, the St. Patrick’s Festival committee named Geva the Woman of the Year. 

While serving on the board of the Dublin-Laurens Chamber of Commerce, she became its first woman president in 1989. The chamber hired its first professional executive during Geva’s presidency.

Geva attributes much of her success to remaining low key. “I didn’t push,” she said, adding that in-your-face was not her style. “I proved myself without pushing. I hated those women who made spectacles of themselves.”

Geva still found time to mentor any young woman struggling to start a business. She was a source of advice and strategies. She helped them stay focused and pulled them back when otherwise they might have walked away. She fed them lunch and, on occasion, even babysat their children.

The lessons Geva taught her children have stuck with them. Nannette Alexander has been her business partner for almost 50 years. She learned from her parents how to sell. “I’m not a salesman. They taught me I didn’t have to be,” she said. 

“We have products people want so they come to us,” she said. “I was taught not to try to sell the customers what you think they need. Ask questions until the customer can tell you what he wants and then help him find it.”

Paul Alexander is the oldest of the three. He said Geva’s entrepreneurship filtered down to all of them. Paul delivered office supplies on his bicycle as a teenager. “Her example and total support that I could do anything I attempted gave me an arrogant confidence that has served me well,” he said. Because of Geva, he said, there also have been Alexander Engineering and Alexander Consulting.

George Alexander remembers a particularly practical lesson. “As kids, we were late everywhere – even jumping on the band bus as it pulled across the parking lot headed for away games,” he said.

 Ultimately, he embraced Geva’s notion of “if you’re not early, you’re late.” As a result, “I’m early everywhere,” he said.

Geva and Louis were constant presences in the lives of their grandsons, Chris and Scott Lanier, as they grew up in Dublin. Chris lives in Laurens County with his son Connor. Scott and his wife Leah live in South Bend, Indiana.

Scott said that Geva still looks just like she did in old photos. “She told my mom one time that I was very determined and that she just had to point me in the right direction. She was right,” he said.

Scott said their relationship is strong despite the distance and includes a warmth between Geva and his wife. “When we got married, she gave Leah her wedding ring,” he said. 

Scott said that Geva’s greatest achievement has been her impact on people. “She did a million little things,” he said. “People would walk up and speak to her everywhere.”

Chris learned from his grandmother how hard work can pay off in business. He said she gave him a place to stay when he came home from college. “She never gave up on me even when I was at the lowest point in my life,” he said.

Both grandsons learned from Geva and Louis’ marriage. Scott described it as a symbiotic partnership. “You always knew they loved each other and were equals,” he said.

Chris said his Geva and Louis taught him that a marriage can last a lifetime.

Geva’s sons live in Atlanta. Paul and Ruth have three daughters – Anna, Emma, and Laura; George and Martha have two sons – Harper and Hunter Alexander.