Gamble, Clarence James, 1894-

Gamble (1894-1966) (Harvard, M.D. 1920) became involved in the birth control movement in 1929 when he helped to establish the Maternal Health Clinic and Committee in Cincinnati and became associated with a Philadelphia clinic. In 1933 he chaired the board of Philadelphia Maternal Health Centers, and began a term as president of the Pennsylvania Birth Control Federation. He later served in an executive capacity with the Birth Control Federation and Planned Parenthood Federation of America. He provided funding for research for the National Committee for Maternal Health and supported field tests for contraceptives. In 1957 he established the Pathfinder Fund to advise and work with major family planning agencies. In addition, he did research on family planning and population control and taught at the Harvard Medical School.

Clarence Gamble was born into one of America's wealthiest mercantile families (Proctor & Gamble) and was educated at Princeton University and Harvard Medical School. A man with a mission for using his considerable wealth and intellectual expertise for the good of mankind, Gamble devoted his life to “The Great Cause”--his goal of making each and every child birth the result of a conscious decision on the part of responsible parents.** From the late 1920s until his death in 1966, Gamble took part in almost every important gain in behalf of planned parenthood: initiating, directing, or financing a considerable number of programs advancing the cause of population control. As his efforts to work through and with the professional organizations in the field left much to be desired, Gamble eventually formed the Pathfinder Fund, which served as a family foundation for the remainder of his lifetime, but has since acquired a highly competent professional staff which advises and works with major worldwide family planning agencies.

* James Reed centers his book, From Private Vice to Public Virtue: The Birth Control Movement and American Society Since 1830 (New York: Basic Books Inc., 1978) around the efforts of Sanger, Dickinson, and Gamble. ** A full-length biography, Every Child a Wanted Child: Clarence James Gamble, M.D., and his Work in the Birth Control Movement (Boston: Countway Library Associates, 1978) has been written by Doone and Greer Williams and edited by Emily P. Flint. Both the Williams and Reed books have drawn heavily on the papers in the Gamble Archive.