Robert Rimmer; Best Known as Author of ‘Harrad Experiment’

Robert Rimmer, 84, author of a number of books preaching sex without guilt and exploring alternative models of intimacy in and out of marriage, died Aug. 1 at his home in Quincy, Mass.

His books, which were popular with the free-love generation, included “The Harrad Experiment,” which dealt with co-habitation in campus life. It was made into a movie--with a young Don Johnson as one of its stars--and a sequel.

In an interview with Psychology Today about 30 years ago, Rimmer predicted that “monogamous marriage will not be the only legal, sanctioned form of marriage.”

“There will be socially approved group marriages, there will be bigamous marriages, and there will be open-end marriages in which each partner has a relationship outside the marriage.”

A Boston native, Rimmer earned a bachelor’s degree from Bates College and a master’s from Harvard. He served in the Army during World War II and later became president of the family business, Relief Printing Corp. He started a publishing company, Challenge Press, and published some of his own works.