Abraham Flexner’s Work

In 1921, Flexner prepared a memo for the Board that he later developed into an address, “The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge,” which was published in Harper’s Magazinein October 1939. In it, he detailed the groundwork for supporting institutions such as the Institute for Advanced Study.After writing further reports for the Carnegie and Rockefeller foundations, Flexner worked for the General Education Board of the Rockefeller Foundation from 1913 until 1928, when he was ousted from his very influential post as Head of the Division of Studies of the General Education Board, after losing an internal power struggle. At the age of 62, Flexner accepted an invitation to deliver the 1928 Rhodes Memorial Lectures in Oxford, England. He had been recommended by his friend Frank Aydelotte, the President of Swarthmore College. Years earlier, Flexner had helped Aydelotte win a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford by coaching him in classical Latin and Greek. Aydelotte subsequently became American Secretary to the Rhodes Trustees (1918-1953), and the two men worked together in a variety of ways to improve higher education in the United States.In 1929, Flexner was approached by Samuel Leidesdorf, an accountant, and Herbert Maass, a lawyer, on behalf of two philanthropists who were looking to support a new venture. Louis Bamberger and his sister Caroline Bamberger Fuld were seeking advice on establishing a medical school in Newark, New Jersey, but Flexner had other ideas. Working with the Bambergers, Flexner helped shape what was to become a unique American institution of higher learning and the culmination of his career, the Institute for Advanced Study.Flexner served as the first Director of the Institute, a post he held until 1939. Aydelotte went on to succeed Flexner as the second Director of the Institute. Two books shed light on the man and his life: I Remember: The Autobiography of Abraham Flexner(Simon & Schuster, 1940), reprinted in 1960 as Abraham Flexner: An Autobiography, and Iconoclast: Abraham Flexner and a Life in Learningby Thomas Neville Bonner (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002).Flexner believed in providing a basic education for all and a rigorous and demanding academic curriculum for the gifted and interested. In his autobiography, first published in 1940, he wrote: Between men of first-rate ability, collaboration or teamwork cannot be arranged or forced; on the other hand, collaboration and discussion will take place where relatively small groups of scholars have abundant opportunity to discuss with one another either their own individual problems or problems that lie on the borderline.