He joined a U.S. Marine Corps unit at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, where he continued his education and, after being discharged, earned two bachelor's degrees, one in mechanical engineering and one in science.
After also completing graduate school studies and research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, Glimcher returned to HMS and became the first tenured chair in orthopedic surgery.
His frustration with existing devices for transhumeral amputees led him to put together a group of institutions to develop a myoelectric elbow.
The first Boston Arm was a joint effort of the Liberty Mutual Insurance Research Institute for Safety, MIT, HMS, and Mass General to rehabilitate persons who had suffered upper-limb loss.
His second daughter, Dr. Laurie Glimcher,[7] is a leading immunologist and hospital administrator who became interested in science as a girl during her visits to her father's laboratory.