Simon Flexner in His Office, ca.1930

Simon Flexner, ca.1930Courtesy of the Rockefeller Archive CenterWhen Simon Flexner retired in 1935 as the first director of The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, his colleagues wanted to organize a testimonial in his honor. But Flexner, in keeping with his characteristic reserve, politely declined. He had been the director for thirty-three years, during which time the Institute had grown from a handful of scientists working in rented quarters to a world-renowned research center. As he passed through its gates for the last time, he left behind on its library shelves, the most durable and eloquent tribute to his career: one hundred bound volumes containing the reports of the scientists whose research he had guided, encourage, and nurtured.