David R. Kessler M.D.

1930 - 2023

David R. Kessler MD
April 1, 1930 - November 24, 2022
David Rudolph Kessler, MD, was born on April 1, 1930, in Brooklyn, New York. He was the only child of Polish Jews, who emigrated to the United States shortly after World War One. His father, Benjamin, was a clothing manufacturer, and his mother later in life worked for the New York City Board of Education.
Dr. Kessler attended public schools in Brooklyn. In 1937 he accompanied his mother on a 9 month visit to her family in Poland. Future political success was heralded by his election as student body president in junior high school. After graduation from Brooklyn College, he attended Yale Medical School, receiving his MD degree in 1955. Following three years with the United States Public Health Service, he returned to Yale for psychiatric training. He helped open one of the nation's first psychiatric units in an American general hospital.
In 1962 Dr Kessler moved to San Francisco, becoming a full-time staff member at the Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute, where he subsequently helped to train many of the psychiatrists now practicing in the Bay Area. He retired in 1986, as a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco. He was the author of several clinical papers and was co-author of an early textbook on marital and family therapy. For over 50 years he conducted a part-time forensic psychiatric practice and was a consultant to the San Francisco Superior Court.
In 1978, inspired by Harvey Milk, he came out publicly as gay during a Langley Porter Institute grand round, becoming the first such openly gay faculty member on the campus. Dr. Kessler had other notable firsts, including being the first elected president of the nation's first gay doctor's group, the Bay Area Physicians for Human Rights, 1978 to 1980, and then the first elected president of the national Gay Caucus of Members of the American Psychiatric Association (1980-82). He served on many boards, including the National Gay Task Force and the NAMES Project (the AIDS quilt). In 1991 he endowed an annual lectureship on gay and lesbian issues at the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies (CLAGS) at the Graduate School of the City University of New York.
Dr Kessler and his former partner, Steven Del Re (who died of AIDS in 1986), enjoyed all things Italian, and traveled extensively throughout the Italian peninsula Dr. Kessler often maintained that "I must have been Italian in a former life." Music was his avocation. He took piano lessons on and off for years, saying that he was "studying to be a prodigy." During adolescence he changed his middle name, adapting it from that of his musical hero of the time, Rudolf Serkin. He amassed an extensive collection of musical CDs, most of which he managed to listen to.
Several of his close friends died during the early years of the AIDS epidemic, but he managed to maintain warm relationships with a small circle of intimate associates. Dr. Kessler considered himself to be exceedingly fortunate. He escaped without grave consequences after a hot air balloon crash in France, and he successfully survived a bout of leukemia several years later. Most importantly, he referred to his having had the opportunity to contribute to the struggle for gay rights.
He tended to deal with life with a sense of humor. One of his favorite retorts was his definition of Jewish optimism: "It could be worse."
On his current voyage he hopes to meet up with Mozart and get a chance to hear some of his latest compositions.
Surviving relatives include two cousins and their families in Los Angeles.
In lieu of flowers, please send contributions to PFLAG, or your favorite GLBT charity.
A memorial service will be held March 11, 2023, in San Francisco. For details, please email dpolites@outlook.com with your name and phone number.