David Gergen, a White House communications strategist who advised four U.S. presidents across party lines and later became a prominent television commentator and academic, has died at 83. His son, Christopher Gergen, said he passed away on Thursday at a retirement community in Lexington, Massachusetts. The cause was Lewy body dementia, according to the family and the Harvard Kennedy School, where Gergen founded the Center for Public Leadership and held the title of professor of public service emeritus. Gergen entered national politics in 1971 as a speechwriting assistant in the Nixon administration. He went on to serve as communications director for Presidents Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan and returned to the White House in 1993 as counselor to President Bill Clinton. Among his best-known contributions was the debate line Ronald Reagan used against Jimmy Carter in 1980: “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” Outside government, Gergen edited U.S. News & World Report, became a senior political analyst for CNN and wrote several books on leadership, including the memoir "Eyewitness to Power" and the 2022 volume "Hearts Touched with Fire." Over his career he received 27 honorary degrees and mentored generations of public-service students. A private burial is scheduled for Monday at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, with a larger memorial service at Harvard to be held in the coming weeks.