Early Life
George Ames Plimpton was born in New York City on March 18, 1927, and spent his childhood in New York City, attending St. Bernard's School and growing up in an apartment duplex on Manhattan's Upper East Side located at 1165 Fifth Avenue. During the summers, he lived in West Hills, a hamlet located in the Town of Huntington in Suffolk County, New York. He was the son of Francis Taylor Pearsons Plimpton, and the grandson of Frances Taylor Pearsons and George Arthur Plimpton. His grandfather was the founder of the Ginn publishing company and a philanthropist. His father was a successful corporate lawyer and a founding partner of the law firm Debevoise and Plimpton. He was appointed by President John F. Kennedy as U.S. deputy ambassador to the United Nations serving from 1961 to 1965.
His mother was Pauline Ames, the daughter of botanist Oakes Ames and artist Blanche Ames. Both of Plimpton's maternal grandparents were born with the surname Ames; his mother was the granddaughter of Medal of Honor recipient Adelbert Ames, an American sailor, soldier, and politician, and Oliver Ames, a U.S. political figure and the 35th Governor of Massachusetts (1887–1890). She was also the great-granddaughter on her father's side of Oakes Ames (1804–1873), an industrialist and congressman who was impeached in the Crédit Mobilier railroad scandal of 1872; and Governor-General of New Orleans Benjamin Franklin Butler, an American lawyer and politician who represented Massachusetts in the United States House of Representatives and later served as the 33rd Governor of Massachusetts.
George had three siblings: Francis Taylor Pearsons Plimpton Jr., Oakes Ames Plimpton, and Sarah Gay Plimpton.
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