Alan Gregg

Background

Gregg was born on July 11, 1890, in Colorado Springs, Colorado, the son of James Barlett Gregg, a Congregational minister, and Mary Needham.

Education

In 1907 Gregg enrolled in Harvard College, where he was elected president of the Signet Society and the Lampoon. Perhaps the most portentous event of his college days, however, was hearing Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and Sandor Ferenczi lecture in 1909. Gregg developed an interest in psychiatry that he pursued throughout his career. After graduating from Harvard in 1911, he traveled extensively in Europe, then entered Harvard Medical School in 1912 and received the M. D. in 1916.

Career

Following an internship at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Gregg joined the Harvard Medical Unit serving in France in 1917. When he returned to the United States in 1919, Gregg had decided upon a career in public health. Wickliffe Rose, director of the International Health Board of the Rockefeller Foundation, promptly hired him to work on malaria and hookworm in Brazil. Gregg impressed his superiors during the three years that he worked in Brazil, and in 1922 he was named associate director of the Division of Medical Education of the Rockefeller Foundation in New York. Despite this impressive title, Gregg's service for the next two years amounted to an apprenticeship. He spent most of his time reading applications for new programs in medical schools and writing declinations. This assignment was vital to his training, for by explaining to applicants why their proposals had to be turned down, he learned a great deal about what needed to be done to improve medical education. Trips to Panama and Colombia to survey opportunities for making grants to medical schools added depth to his training. Gregg's career as a foundation officer really began in 1924, when he was sent to Europe to head the Paris office of the Rockefeller Foundation. For the next seven years, he steeped himself in European medical education, visiting scores of institutions. These visits yielded firsthand information that proved of great help when he evaluated proposals and made policy recommendations for grants. Gregg learned the strengths and weaknesses of the European systems; and, above all, his years in Europe convinced him that a "one world" approach to medical research and medical education should prevail. In 1931 Gregg became director of the newly reorganized division of medical sciences of the Rockefeller Foundation in New York City, a position he held for the next two decades. Priorities within the foundation were uncertain, and he immediately established himself as an effective spokesman for medical interests. Gregg consistently won a handsome share of the foundation's budget for his division. Moreover, he recruited distinguished officers for his staff and made effective use of their services. Perhaps the best example of Gregg's courage under fire was his support of projects that were too controversial to secure funding elsewhere. For more than a decade he defended grants for Alfred Kinsey's pioneering work on human sexual behavior against critics within and outside the foundation. Unabashed elitism was the essence of Gregg's approach to philanthropy. He thought that his task was to identify the best minds and to create optimal environments in which they could work. To accomplish these goals, he advocated the establishment of a small number of research institutes in specific fields, with endowments large enough to support long-range projects. No issue generated more friction with the trustees, most of whom favored disbursing funds more broadly through small, short-term grants to numerous investigators. It was a credit to his powers of persuasion that Gregg secured approval for a few major centers, such as the Montreal Neurological Institute, and for a number of endowed chairs in crucial areas of research at outstanding medical schools. In 1951 Gregg became vice-president of the Rockefeller Foundation. This appointment relieved him of administrative duties and made possible more consulting, lecturing, and writing. In 1954 he retired. His final years were devoted to the role of medical statesman, a duty that he discharged with dignity and charm. He died at Big Sur, California on June 19, 1957.

Achievements

• Alan Gregg has been listed as a noteworthy physician by Marquis Who's Who.

Membership

Vice-president of the Rockefeller Foundation (1951)

Connections

Gregg married Eleanor Agnes Barrows in 1923, they had four children.

Father:

James Barlett Gregg

Mother:

Mary Needham

Spouse:

Eleanor Agnes Barrows

References

• The Oral History Collection of Columbia University
• The difficult art of giving;: The epic of Alan Gregg