“All the world is a stage and we are all players,” summarized Tom Harrison, “and Ernie, he was one man, but many players.” 

At Friday’s memorial service family, friends and Ryerson paid tribute to Ronald Alexander, known to the Ryerson community as “Ernie” the hot dog vendor, a man made famous not only by his hot dogs and straight talk, but also the support and bursary funds he gave to the Ryerson students he loved.

For his family and friends the “Ernie of Ryerson” was another of the many sides to the man they had known as Keith.  Through-out his life a shroud of mystery had remained over his real name.   “He set up a prize for anyone who could guess his real name,” recalled Harrison, a life long friend of Ernie’s.  “I knew him for 65 years and I never guessed his real name – Ronald.”

“The thing I say when I look at all these people here – who was Ernie?” added Claudette Dunn fondly of her brother, as she stood to speak at the memorial.   “I grew up with a guy called Keith.  I don’t know how he became this hero?” 

But Ernie had been a hero to his children long before he came to Ryerson.  Gail Alexander, one of Ernie’s daughters, recalled being surprised at the swimming pool when her father began doing back flips and complicated spins from the diving board.  “He was so versatile,” said Gail Alexander. “He would just start doing things we had no idea he could do.  Really he was my hero for most of my life.”

Ernie’s son agreed that his father's celebrity status at Ryerson did not come as a shock.  “He was a people person,” said Dennis Alexander. “He loved talking to people and giving back to them.  I think his happiest time was as Ernie at Ryerson.” 

“When I say hot dog I mean hot dog, not just a wiener with a fancy name,” said Ernie to Ryerson English professor Dr. Nelles Van Loon, the creator of ‘Hot Dog’ a musical based on Ernie’s life. “A hot dog isn’t just meat but the people, the living people who eat them going to ball games and walking down the street.”

Over the 25 years that Ernie ran his hot dog stand at the corner of Gould and Church he provided much more than hot dogs and special sauce, but a chatty disposition and gems of advice and that kept people coming back for his education of the street. 

Speaking at the Memorial Sheldon Levy, President of Ryerson, recalled those around the world who had been affected by Ernie, from the man in Flint, Michigan who made a yearly pilgrimage to Ernie’s stand to buy hotdogs that were reheated and eaten at home, to the business man from Hong Kong under strict instructions from his Ryerson-graduate colleague to “check what Ernie was raving about today,” whenever he travelled to Toronto.

For those who knew him Ernie had been a life-long student, first of engineering and languages and then of the street, when he set up his stand and engaged the students who flocked to it.  This love of learning coupled with a love for Ryerson students culminated in the establishment of Ernie’s bursary fund in 1991.  To this day the fund has helped 22 students and currently has $27 000 in holding to assist more.  “Ryerson students have been good to me,” he once said to Levy, “and I believe in giving back.”

Through a life that took him form Ronald to Keith to Ernie, Alexander charmed and intrigued those around him, no more so than at Ryerson.