Abraham Flexner (1866-1959) devoted his life to the improvement of teaching and research in America, initiating the modern American medical school and serving as first director of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton.

Abraham Flexner was born on Nov. 13, 1866, in Louisville, Ky. He attended the Louisville High School and returned to it as a teacher after his graduation from Johns Hopkins University in 1886. Four years later he opened a college preparatory school in Louisville and put to a successful test his belief that inspired teaching plus the enthusiasm and competitive spirit of youth made the usual administrative rules, records, reports, and classroom examinations unnecessary.

Flexner married in 1898. In 1905 he began graduate studies in education at Harvard University. His concern turned to the institutions and practices of graduate and professional training. He traveled in England, Germany, France, Canada, and the United States. In 1910 his report to the Rockefeller...