Calvin Plimpton

Plimpton House, Amherst College (1914)

Calvin Hastings Plimpton (7 October 1918, Boston, Massachusetts – 30 January 2007, Westwood, Massachusetts) was an American physician and educator, who served as president of Amherst College and American University of Beirut. He is known for appointing a commission in 1970 whose findings resulted in the admission of women to Amherst in 1975.

Plimpton was the son of George Arthur Plimpton, who was chairman of the Amherst board of trustees from 1906-36. His mother was Fanny "Anne" Hastings and through her he was descended from Thomas Hastings (colonist) who came from the East Anglia region of England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634. Plimpton attended Phillips Exeter Academy, and received his bachelor's degree from Amherst, where he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. He received his master's and M.D. degrees from Harvard University, and his Doctor of Medical Science degree from Columbia University. He served in the U.S. Army as a captain during World War II, and later taught at Columbia.

Plimpton was president of Amherst from 1960–71 (Plimpton House, now a dormitory, named in his honour), President of Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, N.Y Division of State University of New York 1971-1979 and of American University of Beirut from 1984-87.

References

• Buckminster, Lydia N.H., The Hastings Memorial, A Genealogical Account of the Descendants of Thomas Hastings of Watertown, Mass. from 1634 to 1864, Boston: Samuel G. Drake Publisher (an undated NEHGS photoduplicate of the 1866 edition).

External links

• American University of Beirut profile
• New York Times obituary, February 4, 2007