Gerald S. Lesser, Key Figure in the Development of Sesame Street, Dies at 84
Trained as a psychologist, Lesser made key contributions to the content and tone of the iconic children’s educational series.
Gerald S. Lesser, a psychologist who served as chief adviser to the children’s television series Sesame Street and helped to shape its educational content, died on September 23, 2010, in Burlington, Massachusetts. He was 84 and lived in Lexington, Massachusetts.
According to news reports, the cause was a cerebral hemorrhage.
From 1963 until his retirement in 1998, Lesser taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He remained an emeritus professor at his death.
Lesser’s served as chairman of the Children’s Television Workshop board of advisers from 1969 to 1996.
Today Sesame Street reaches viewers in 140 countries. Since its debut, it has taught more than 80 million preschoolers and won more than 100 Emmy Awards.
Books by Lesser include Mental Abilities of Children in Different Social and Cultural Groups (with Gordon Fifer and Donald H. Clark) and Children and Television: Lessons From Sesame Street.
Lesser was born in New York City on August 22, 1926. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, after which he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Columbia University and a Ph.D. in psychology from Yale. He taught at Adelphi University and Hunter College before joining the Harvard faculty.
He is survived by his wife, a son a daughter and a grandchild.