David Gergen, Adviser To 4 U.S. Presidents, Has Dementia

David Gergen, a political commentator who’s served in the White House under four presidents, has been diagnosed with dementia, his daughter revealed in The Boston Globe.

Gergen, 82, has Lewy body dementia, his daughter, family medicine doctor Katherine Gergen Barnett, wrote, describing the disease as “a combination of Parkinson’s meets Alzheimer’s.”

“Watching the wrecking ball of Lewy body dementia careen into the fortress of my father’s mind has been devastating,” she wrote, saying his body and mind have quickly declined.

Gergen’s career highlights include serving during the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. He served as an official counselor to Clinton, as the White House communications director for Ford and Reagan and the speechwriting director for Nixon. He’s spent his last few years as a political analyst at CNN.

David Gergen in January 2020.
Boston Globe via Getty Images

In her piece for the Globe, Gergen’s daughter shared some of her father’s recent thoughts, including ones on the current political climate.

“We are going through a period of fear. People are terrified. We have been tested, we are being tested now, but we must recognize that politics in our country is like a pendulum,” Gergen told his daughter, adding: “We must hold onto the inspirational moments of our history and use them to light our path forward. … I keep thinking about Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech — and though we still have so far to go as a country, you could not have imagined everything that could have happened from that moment.”

He also called on younger generations to factor the country’s needs into their career plans.

“Many in the next generation are going to the best schools and not giving back what is remotely needed by our country,” he said, according to his daughter. “We need to continue to ensure that we have people in the next generation out front pulling the wagon — innovators and people in the public sector — delivering on the goods.”

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Gergen has published two books about his perspective on leadership, including “Hearts Touched With Fire: How Great Leaders Are Made” in 2022. In it, he praised the leadership successes of Presidents John F. Kennedy and George H.W. Bush, the late Rep. John Lewis, the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, human rights advocate Malala Yousafzai and climate activist Greta Thunberg.

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