David Gergen, adviser to four presidents, dies at 83

David Gergen, a veteran of Washington’s policy and adviser to four presidents of the two parties, died. He was 83 years old.

Gergen died on Thursday, confirmed his son Christopher to CBS News.

Gergen’s career in politics has lasted decades, working in the administrations of former presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. Over the years, he has been an editor of speeches, director of communications and advisor to the president, among other roles. He was also commentator of the prolific media.

Dean Jeremy Weinstein from Harvard Kennedy School, with which Gergen had a long relationship, the Associated Press told that Gergen died of a long illness. Gergen “has devoted decades of his life to serve those who sought to serve,” said Hannah Riley Bowles, former co-director of the school center of the school, where Gergen was the founding director.

“David was a head of principle of unrivaled character, integrity and kindness, who chose to see goodness in each person he met,” said Riley Bowles at the AP.

Al Gore, who was vice-president of Clinton, posted on X, “countless ways that David Gergen contributed to our big country, which I will remember for most of his kindness for all those with whom he worked, his good judgment and his devotion to doing good in the world.”

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

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

After having served in the American navy in the 1960s, Gergen took his first job at the White House in 1971, as an assistant to draft speeches for Nixon. Bipartisanat and collaboration were the characteristics of his long career, colleagues said who paid testimonies on social networks on Friday.

He was also a media personality who worked as the main political analyst for CNN. In his 2022 book “Hearts Touched With Fire: How Great Leaders is done,” he wrote: “Our greatest leaders are emerged from the two good moments and, more often, challenges … The very beautiful of them make difficult calls, which can ultimately change the course of history.”

In 2022, Gergen then aged 79 years spoken with “CBS Sunday Morning”, where he expressed his alarm about the state of American democracy.

“We cannot continue on the way on which we survive; it is not sustainable,” he said. “It feels that we, as, in a car, at midnight, on the edge of a cliff, with the falling rain and no headlights.”

A private burial is scheduled for the Mount Auburn cemetery on Monday on Mount on Mark Douglass, director of the Douglass show in Lexington, Massachusetts, said. A greater commemorative service in Harvard will be held in the coming weeks, said Douglass.