Jerrold Post

Biography

Early life and education

Jerrold Morton Post was born on February 8, 1934, in New Haven, Connecticut. His mother was Lillian (Chaikind) Post, the bookkeeper at a shoe store, and his father was Jacob Post, a seller of movie reels to local theaters. Post worked his way through Yale University, from which he received his undergraduate degree in 1956. He received his M.D. degree in 1960, also from Yale. He completed a two-year residency at Harvard Medical School that was followed by a two-year fellowship at St. Elizabeth's psychiatric hospital in Washington, D.C.

Career

In 1965, Post was preparing to accept a position at Harvard's McLean Hospital, when, through an acquaintance, he was recruited by the C.I.A., where he began developing psychological profiles of world leaders. After a career of 21 years at the C.I.A., in 1986, Post left to found a program of political psychology at George Washington University, where as a professor, he taught until 2015.

He was the founder and director of the Center for the Analysis of Personality and Political Behavior. He also maintained a private practice in psychiatry out of his home in Bethesda, Maryland.

Personal life and death

Post was married to Sharon (Ruttenberg) Post until her death in 1975. He married Carolyn Ashland in 1978. He and his first wife had two daughters, Cynthia Post, a psychologist, and Meredith Gramlich, a disability specialist. Post also had a stepdaughter, Kirsten Davidson. His sister was Judith Tischler. He played backgammon, jazz piano and tournament bridge.

Post had kidney failure in his later years and went to a dialysis center weekly. He suffered a stroke in July 2020, and could no longer drive to dialysis, so he took a medical taxi where it is believed he contracted COVID-19. On November 15, he tested positive for COVID-19. Post died from the virus one week later, on November 22, 2020.