S. Dillon Ripley took office as the eighth Secretary of the Smithsonian. Before becoming Secretary, Ripley was a professor of biology at Yale University, and director of its Peabody Museum of Natural History. He was trained as a biologist with a particular interest in ornithology.  The seventh Secretary, Leonard Carmichael, who had served from 1953 to 1964, retired on January 31, 1964. More - https://siarchives.si.edu/collections/siris_sic_855.