David Gergen, a trusted adviser to four U.S. presidents who went on to play a pivotal role in shaping leadership education at Harvard Kennedy School, has died at the age of 83.
Gergen was a dedicated public servant to a succession of presidents over four decades and later a national political commentator for CNN. He served in the White House during both Republican and Democratic administrations, commanding bipartisan respect. He then came to Harvard and co-founded the Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership, where he spent more than 20 years training the next generation of public leaders.
“We at the Kennedy School count David among our greatest leaders: a man of courage and commitment who inspired generations of students to go out and change the world for the better,” said Jeremy Weinstein, dean of the Kennedy School and Don K. Price Professor of Public Policy.
After graduating from Yale University and Harvard Law School, Gergen served in the U.S. Navy in the 1960s and took his first job in the White House in 1971 as a speechwriting assistant for Republican President Richard Nixon. He held senior communications roles for Republican Presidents Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan, and later for Democrat Bill Clinton. Gergen was celebrated for his ability to bridge partisan divides with grace and wisdom, a steady voice across multiple crises.
“We at the Kennedy School count David among our greatest leaders: a man of courage and commitment who inspired generations of students to go out and change the world for the better.”
Gergen joined Harvard Kennedy School in 1999 as a professor of public service and founding director of the Center for Public Leadership (CPL). During his 20 years at the helm, CPL grew into a hub for the Kennedy School’s study and practice of principled and effective leadership.
“David devoted decades of his life to serving those who sought to serve—mentoring, teaching, and befriending students and faculty alike,” said Hannah Riley Bowles, the Roy E. Larsen Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Management and a former CPL co-director. “David was a principled leader of unmatched character, integrity, and kindness, who chose to see goodness in every person he met.”
The current director of CPL, Emma Bloomberg Professor of the Practice of Public Leadership Anthony Foxx, said, “It was his vision of public service that drove the creation of CPL and programs that have created pathways to leadership for over 1,000 students. CPL will continue to live into David’s legacy of mentorship as we enable and empower future generations of leaders. A prolific writer, deep thinker, effective communicator, and astute political advisor, for all his incredible political achievements, David’s deepest legacy is not in speeches written or policy victories won, but in people: the people David loved, mentored, and supported, the hearts he touched with fire.”
When he appointed Gergen as public service professor in 1999, then-HKS Dean Joseph Nye said, "David has always had an old-fashioned view of public service that goes beyond partisanship, and I think that's what we stand for as well."
Gergen retired in 2023, staying on as professor of public service, emeritus, and his legacy to the Kennedy School lives on through the David Gergen Summer Fellowship Program. Launched in the summer of 2024, this program supports students in undertaking 10-week summer internships in public service or the nonprofit sector, based on his example of mentorship, connection, and opening doors for young leaders.
“There’s no substitute for what you learn from experience,” Gergen said of the fellowship program when it was announced. “There’s a tendency to believe that your time at university stops when you graduate. We’re hopeful to create communities where people want to work together for a lifetime.”
Explaining his own approach to teaching, Gergen said being a leader “is not just what you can do. It’s also about if you can spot the talent that’s coming.”
“I’m among the lucky ones to have had David Gergen as a teacher. When I graduated from Harvard Kennedy School in 2009, he became a mentor,” said Rye Barcott MPA/MBA 2009. “Years later, when I started a nonprofit, he became a cofounder. Now, he is a cherished friend. An action-oriented person, I think David would most appreciate my sharing in a tribute to him advice that I learned from him that can be useful to others pursuing lives of service. Here are five pieces of advice I gained from the great good fortune of knowing David Gergen.”
Wendy R. Sherman, former CPL co-director who went on to serve as U.S. deputy secretary of state, said, “When I was asked to be the next leader of the Center for Public Leadership, I always said I was succeeding but not replacing David Gergen, because he is irreplaceable. David Gergen was the very definition of public leadership…. In such a perilous time for our democracy, his example and inspiration will be sorely missed.”
“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.”
Deval Patrick, the former Massachusetts governor who co-directed CPL with former co-director Hannah Riley Bowles and is the David R. Gergen Professor of the Practice of Public Leadership, said: “Not only have this center and the Kennedy School lost an advocate and an architect, but the nation has lost a sterling example of effective, principled public leadership. David was a friend and mentor to the famous and the not yet famous alike. Wise, practical, patient, warm, curious about others’ perspectives, he certainly had a big impact on my life and public career.”
Gergen was also a respected writer and media commentator, serving as a senior political analyst for CNN and other outlets including U.S. News and World Report, and wrote two best-selling books, Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership as Seen Through the Eyes of Four Presidents, a memoir published in 2000, and 2022’s Hearts Touched with Fire: How Great Leaders are Made, in which he reflected on lessons about leadership reflection.
In Hearts Touched with Fire, Gergen 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. Through courage and character, they motivate others to follow their lead; one single person can inspire the masses to act, to change the world for the better.”
Former HKS Dean Douglas Elmendorf said, “David brought public leadership to the center of our mission, and he was creative and determined in building our capacity to study and teach leadership.... We who teach, study, and work here are in his debt. David was a generous colleague and friend to me, and I was grateful for his advice and support. I will miss him very much.”
Professor Graham Allison, also a former Kennedy School dean, recalled Gergen as “one of the brightest lights whose insights into the centrality of communication in leadership illuminated our lives at Harvard as he helped build both our Center for Press and Politics and founded the School’s Center for Public Leadership.”
Gergen himself pointed wryly to the complex challenges of supporting political leaders in their public communications. Writing in Eyewitness to Power, he recalled his stint in the 1960s serving aboard a Navy ship, the USS Ajax, as a damage control officer. “Learning to control damage, it turned out, was the best possible preparation for my coming years in the White House.”
Gergen was born in Durham, North Carolina, in 1942. He is survived by his widow Anne Elizabeth Gergen, whom he married in 1967, and their two children, Christopher, the CEO of the Regenerative Organic Alliance, and, and Katherine, a doctor in Boston, and five grandchildren. “David’s deep commitment to public service and leadership found a perfect home at the Center for Public Leadership” shares Anne. “The opportunity to work with next generation changemakers committed to making a difference was a constant source of inspiration and energy—and he was deeply grateful for the network of friends and supporters who helped CPL thrive. We are so grateful to the Harvard community for helping create this lasting legacy.”
Before joining the Harvard faculty, Gergen taught at Duke University for several years. He was awarded more than two dozen honorary degrees.
Lawrence Bacow, HKS professor of public policy and former president of Harvard, said he got to know Gergen while serving as a Hauser Leader at CPL. “He had an extraordinary gift for giving advice without appearing to do so, framing issues in ways that crystallized the consequences of various actions,” Bacow said. “After speaking with him, you knew what to do, and often, how to do it very well. David will be remembered by many as the quintessential public leader, but I will remember him most fondly as a private mentor, always willing to share his wisdom without appearing too wise.”
Former HKS Dean David Ellwood remembered Gergen as “an amazing listener with a generous spirit, a love of history, astonishing experience and a deep commitment to democracy and public service. It is no wonder that he was perhaps the keenest observer of politics of his generation, and a trusted advisor to students, presidents, colleagues, and even deans.”
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Photos by Kent Dayton, Tom Fitzsimmons, White House photographers, David Hume Kennerly, Jennifer Law