North Carolina native David Gergen, advisor to the White Houses of Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton, has died. He was 83.
Born in Durham and educated at Yale (undergraduate) and Harvard (law), Gergen’s career included serving in the Navy; bar membership in the District of Columbia; broadcast journalism starting with the MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour in 1984; and print journalism as chief editor at U.S. News & World Report. He wrote “Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership Nixon to Clinton” in a 2001 release, and “Hearts Touched with Fire: How Great Leaders Are Made” in a 2022 release.
Yet it was his time in the White House and founding director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School that were most notable and climactic in a remarkable career.
President Richard Nixon won the 1968 election and Gergen joined in 1971 assisting the speech-writing team. Two years later, he led it. And in 1974, Nixon resigned amid the Watergate scandal.
Gergen was communications director for two presidents, finishing the term of Gerald Ford from July 4, 1976, until Jimmy Carter’s administration was sworn in the following January, and from June 1981 to January 1984 for Ronald Reagan. He was counselor to President Bill Clinton for 13 months, from May 1993 to June 1994.
In addition to his time around the Watergate scandal, Gergen was present for the failed Whitewater development that plagued Clinton and his wife Hillary that surfaced in the 1992 campaign season and included the July 1993 questions about Bernard Nussbaum’s interference with documents.
Gergen was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Elon University in May 2009 on the occasion of the school’s inaugural juris doctor commencement. He’s credited by former Elon President Leo Lambert as instrumental in the university launching its law school.
Gergen’s earliest forays into politics included interning for North Carolina Gov. Terry Sanford.
Harvard Kennedy School confirmed Gergen’s Thursday death after a long illness.
Gergen’s son Christopher lives in Durham and is on the Duke faculty, as his father was from 1995-99. Christopher Gergen is CEO of Regenerative Organic Alliance among other endeavors.
In addition to his son, Gergen is survived by his wife Anne Elizabeth Gergen, daughter Katherine, and five grandchildren. Private burial in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Mass., will be Monday and a larger memorial services will be scheduled later.
