David Kessler (born February 16, 1959) is an American author, public speaker, and death and grieving expert. He has published many books, including two co-written with psychiatrist

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (July 8, 1926 – August 24, 2004) was a Swiss-American psychiatrist, a pioneer in near-death studies, author, and developer of the five stages of grief, also known as the "Kübler-Ross model". In 1970, Kübler-Ross deli ...

: ''Life Lessons: Two Experts on Death and Dying Teach Us About the Mysteries of Life and Living''; and ''On Grief & Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief Through the Five Stages of Grief.'' His first book, ''The Needs of the Dying'', received praise from

Mother Teresa Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu (born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, ; 26 August 1910 – 5 September 1997), better known as Mother Teresa or Saint Mother Teresa, was an Albanian-Indian Catholic Church, Roman Catholic nun, founder of the Missionaries of ...

and

Marianne Williamson Marianne Deborah Williamson (born July 8, 1952) is an American author, speaker, and political activist. She began her professional career as a spiritual leader of the Church of Today, a Unity Church in Warren, Michigan. Williamson has written s ...

Biography

Kessler was born in

Rhode Island Rhode Island ( ) is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Connecticut to its west; Massachusetts to its north and east; and the Atlantic Ocean to its south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Is ...

. He did his undergraduate work at USC and graduate work at

Loyola Marymount University Loyola Marymount University (LMU) is a private Jesuit and Marymount research university in Los Angeles, California. LMU enrolls over 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students, making it the largest Catholic university on the west coast of the ...

in bioethics. His mother died in 1973 when he was 13. Around the time of her death in the

intensive care unit An intensive care unit (ICU), also known as an intensive therapy unit or intensive treatment unit (ITU) or critical care unit (CCU), is a special department of a hospital or health care facility that provides intensive care medicine. An inten ...

, Kessler and his dad were staying at a

Howard Johnson's Howard Johnson by Wyndham, still commonly referred to as Howard Johnson's, is an American hotel brand with over 200 hotels in 15 countries. It was also formerly a Chain store, restaurant chain, which at one time was the largest in the U.S., wit ...

hotel in

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

when the hotel became the site of the 13 hour-long mass shooting perpetrated by the "New Orleans Sniper", Mark Essex. During the HIV/AIDS crisis, he founded Progressive Nursing Services, and he also later co-founded Project Angel Food with

in 1989. As a modern-day thanatologist, he follows death wherever it may occur. Therefore, his work combines several occupations, including working with the dying in hospitals and hospices, volunteering as a reserve officer on the police trauma team, and participating with the Red Cross on aviation disasters and its disaster team.

Career

Kessler concentrates in

hospice Hospice care is a type of health care that focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient's pain and symptoms and attending to their emotional and spiritual needs at the end of life. Hospice care prioritizes comfort and quality of life b ...

palliative care Palliative care (from Latin root "to cloak") is an interdisciplinary medical care-giving approach aimed at optimizing quality of life and mitigating or reducing suffering among people with serious, complex, and often terminal illnesses. Man ...

, grief and loss. His latest work includes interviews about

afterlife The afterlife or life after death is a purported existence in which the essential part of an individual's Stream of consciousness (psychology), stream of consciousness or Personal identity, identity continues to exist after the death of their ...

, near death studies and near death awareness. He also is chairperson for the Hospital Association of Southern California Palliative Care Committee. His experiences have taken him from Auschwitz concentration camp to Mother Teresa’s Home for the Dying Destitute in Calcutta. He also worked with

Anthony Perkins Anthony Perkins (April 4, 1932 – September 12, 1992) was an American actor. Born in Manhattan, Perkins began his career as a teenager in summer stock theater, summer stock programs, although he acted in films before his time on Broadway the ...

Michael Landon Michael Landon Sr. (born Eugene Maurice Orowitz; October 31, 1936 – July 1, 1991) was an American actor and filmmaker. He is known for his roles as Little Joe Cartwright in ''Bonanza'' (1959–1973), Charles Ingalls in ''Little House on th ...

and industrialist

Armand Hammer Armand Hammer (May 21, 1898 – December 10, 1990) was an American businessman and philanthropist. The son of a Russian Empire-born communist activist, Hammer trained as a physician before beginning his career in trade with the newly estab ...

when they faced their own deaths. He is the founder of the websit
grief.com
which has over five million visits yearly from 167 countries.

Relationship with Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

, M.D., was a psychiatrist and the author of the book ''On Death and Dying''. She was one of the world's foremost authorities on the psychology of dying and is credited with changing attitudes towards the terminally ill. In 1995 she suffered a series of major strokes, which left her paralyzed and facing her own death. It was during this time that she and David Kessler wrote their first book together, ''Life Lessons: Two Experts on Death and Dying Teach Us About the Mysteries of Life and Living.'' Kübler-Ross died in 2004. Her last book, co-written with David Kessler, ''On Grief and Grieving,'' was completed one month before her death. David Kessler worked closely with Elisabeth for ten years and was with her as she was dying. He feels it is part of his mission to keep her work alive for the next generation. In 2016, after his son David Kessler Jr. died from an accidental drug overdose amid the opioid crisis, Kessler received permission from Kübler-Ross's family and the

Foundation, which her son Ken Ross founded, to write ''Finding Meaning: The Sixth Stage of Grief'', where he wrote about a sixth stage of grief, finding meaning.

Personal life

Kessler has a partner. In 2000, he adopted two sons, Richard and David, the latter of whom passed away from an accidental drug overdose in 2016. He is a godfather to Marianne Williamson's daughter India Emmaline, and she is in turn a godmother to both of his sons.

Bibliography

* ''Finding Meaning: The Sixth Stage of Grief'' (Scribner 2019) * ''Visions, Trips, and Crowded Rooms: Who and What You See Before You Die'' (Hay House 2010)Books in the News. Ciuraru, Carmela. LA Times. 29 June 2010. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-jun-29-la-et-book29-20100629-story.html * With Elisabeth Kübler Ross, ''On Grief & Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief through the Five Stages of Loss'' (Simon & Schuster 2005) *''Life Lessons: Two Experts on Death and Dying Teach us about the Mysteries of Life and Living'' (Simon & Schuster 2001) * ''The Needs of the Dying: A Guide for Bringing Hope, Comfort, and Love to Life’s Final Chapter'' (HarperCollins 1997 and 2007)

References

External links

The Official David Kessler WebsiteThe Official Oprah Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kessler, David Living people 1959 births Writers from Rhode Island American non-fiction writers American gay writers