David Gergen, adviser to 4 presidents, dies at 83

David Gergen, a veteran of Washington politics and an adviser to four presidents in a career spanning decades in government, academia and media, has died. He was 83.

Gergen worked in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. Over the years, he served as a speechwriter, communications director and counselor to the president, among other roles.

Dean Jeremy Weinstein of the Harvard Kennedy School, with which Gergen had a long relationship, said Gergen died of a long illness. Gergen “devoted decades of his life to serving those who sought to serve,” said Hannah Riley Bowles, a former co-director of the school’s Center for Public Leadership, where Gergen was the founding director.

“David was a principled leader of unmatched character, integrity and kindness, who chose to see goodness in every person he met,” Riley Bowles said.

Al Gore, who served as Clinton’s vice president, posted on X, “Of the countless ways that David Gergen contributed to our great country, what I will remember him for most was his kindness to everyone he worked with, his sound judgment, and his devotion to doing good in the world.”

David Richmond Gergen was born in North Carolina and graduated from Yale University and the Harvard Law School, according to a biography on the Harvard Kennedy School website. He would go on to receive 27 honorary degrees over the course of his career.

Gergen founded the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School and remained there as professor of public service emeritus until his death, according to the school’s website.

After serving in the U.S. Navy in the 1960s, Gergen took his first White House job in 1971, serving as a speechwriting assistant for Nixon. Bipartisanship and collaboration were hallmarks of his long career, said colleagues who paid testimonials on social media Friday.

He was also a media personality who worked as a senior political analyst for CNN. In his 2022 book Hearts Touched with Fire: How Great Leaders are Made, he wrote: “Our greatest leaders have emerged from both good times and, more often, challenging ones. … The very finest among them make the difficult calls, that can ultimately alter the course of history.”

A private burial is scheduled for Mount Auburn Cemetery on Monday, said Mark Douglass, director of Douglass Funeral Home in Lexington, Massachusetts. A larger memorial service at Harvard will be held in the coming weeks, Douglass said.