 James Thomas Flexner was born January 13, 1908 in Manhattan.His father was Simon Flexner, a sixth-grade dropout who became a self-taught microbiologist, pathologist, director of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in New York City and discoverer of a cure for spinal meningitis.His mother was Helen Thomas [Flexner], a professor of English at Bryn Mawr whose sister was president of the college.