Alan Valentine

Alan Chester Valentine (February 23, 1901 – July 14, 1980) competed on the gold-medal winning American rugby union team in the 1924 Summer Olympics.

Biography

Born in Glen Cove, New York to a Quaker family, Valentine obtained a his B.A. degree at Swarthmore College and then a M.A. degree at Balliol College of Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. In 1924, he played for and coached the American 1924 Olympic champion Rugby team. Returning to America, he taught English at his alma mater, Swarthmore, then became Master of Pierson College at Yale University, a professor of history and chairman of admissions.

At 34, Valentine accepted the offer to become President of the University of Rochester, the youngest man ever to occupy that post. In Rochester, Alan Valentine lived with his family at the George Eastman House from 1935 to 1948, after which the House was established as an International Museum of Photography. Valentine resigned as university president in November 1949.

He had previously taken a year's leave of absence to head up the Marshall Plan in The Netherlands. In October 1950, President Harry S. Truman picked him to head up the new Economic Stabilization Agency, where he would confront some of the most important industrialists of the age. Later, Valentine wrote his memoirs "Trial Balance" about the England he had known as a Rhodes Scholar three decades earlier. He wrote scholarly biographies of Lords Germain, North, and Stirling, and also penned a number of popular paperbacks under a pseudonym. Valentine died July 14, 1980 at the Penobscot Bay Medical Center in Rockland, Maine. He was 79 years old and lived in North Haven, Maine and Princeton, New Jersey.

External links

* [http://www.databaseolympics.com/players/playerpage.htm?ilkid=VALENALA01 profile]

Persondata
NAME = Valentine, Alan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
SHORT DESCRIPTION = American Rugby player, University President
DATE OF BIRTH = February 23, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH = Glen Cove, New York, USA
DATE OF DEATH = July 14, 1980
PLACE OF DEATH = Rockland, Maine, USA