CALVIN H. PLIMPTON

Calvin H. Plimpton was born in New England in 1919. He was chairman of the Department and professor of Medicine at AUB from 1957 to 1959. He also served as associate dean of the Faculty of Medical Sciences and chief of staff of the AUH.

A member of the University's Board of Trustees for 23 years beginning April 1960, he became chairman of the board in 1965. The Lebanese government awarded him the Order of the Cedars for his service to the country.

After 11 years as president of Amherst College in Massachusetts, Plimpton assumed his new post as president of Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn in 1971. Downstate, a unit of the State University of New York, includes the third largest medical school in the United States, a school of Graduate Studies, a College of Health Related Professions, and a College of Nursing. From 1983 to 1984, he was in charge of international programs for the National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health.

In September 1984 the Board of Trustees announced the appointment of Dr. Plimpton as the tenth president of AUB, a position he held until 1987. In an interview with the Christian Science Monitor in 1985, Plimpton said that AUB had pulled through a number of major threats and crises in its 120-year history. "We cannot be political. We have to continue to do our business, which is educating people--not indoctrinating but encouraging them to think for themselves--and let the chips fall where they may."