born Nov. 13, 1866, Louisville, Ky., U.S.
died Sept. 21, 1959, Falls Church, Va.
U.S. educator.
He taught high school for almost 20 years. When the Carnegie Foundation asked him to evaluate the 155 U.S. and Canadian medical colleges, his report (1910) had a sensational impact; many of the colleges he severely criticized closed, and others revised their policies and curricula. Flexner thereafter channeled over half a billion dollars from the Rockefeller Foundation into improving U.S. medical education. In 1930 he founded the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., to which he brought some of the world's outstanding scientists.