Overview

• Gergen died July 10 at a retirement home in Lexington, Massachusetts, his son Christopher confirmed Lewy body dementia as the cause with a private burial set for Monday and a larger Harvard memorial planned in the coming weeks.
• He began in the Nixon White House in 1971 as a speechwriter, later served as Ford and Reagan communications director and counseled President Clinton, notably crafting Reagan’s “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” debate line.
• After his mid-1980s exit from government, Gergen became a senior political analyst for CNN, a regular PBS commentator on the MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour and editor of U.S. News & World Report.
• At Harvard Kennedy School, he founded and led the Center for Public Leadership, mentoring generations of public servants and serving as professor of public service emeritus until his death.
• Gergen authored the best-selling Eyewitness to Power and later Hearts Touched with Fire, received 27 honorary degrees and earned multiple Peabody Awards for his election coverage analysis.