Biography

Mary Clark Dimond (1916-1983) founded the Edgar Snow Memorial Fund, later Foundation, shortly after the international journalist died in 1972. She served as president of the foundation at UMKC up until her death. She also served as president of the Grenville Clark Fund at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H. and vice president of the Truman Medical Center Foundation. She was also a professional photographer.

She graduated from Radcliffe College in Cambridge, Mass. in 1935.

Mrs. Dimond's husband, Dr. E. Grey Dimond, was one of the founders of the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine.

Her father, Grenville Clark, was the founder of the Root Clark law firm in New York, wrote the Selective Service Act of World War II, and was the author of World Peace Through World Law. Mrs. Dimond's father sought help from Edgar Snow to meet with Chinese leaders in the early 1960s. Clark also invited Snow to speak at the 1965 peace conference in Dublin, New Hampsire. That was where Dr. E. Grey Dimond first met Snow.

Mrs. Dimond was active in international affairs. Through Snow's contacts and influence, the Dimonds traveled to China in 1971, before President Richard Nixon's visit the same year. The Dimonds returned to China every year, often leading specialized delegations of physicians, academics, or interested civilians through the country. The Dimonds also regularly hosted delegations of visiting Chinese nationals. The couple created the Diastole Scholars' Center at UMKC, which had been their home up until Mrs. Dimond's death in 1983.

Information from the Kansas City Star and the Edgar Snow Memorial Foundation.

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