Ruth Westheimer, MA Sociology ’59, Noted Sex Therapist and Author, Dies at 96
New School alumna Dr. Ruth Westheimer, best known as the sexpert Dr. Ruth, brought sex therapy into the mainstream through her radio and television shows that achieved success throughout the U.S. Her rise to fame began in New York with a regional radio call-in program that was later syndicated nationwide. At the height of her influence, she had syndicated radio and television shows, wrote a column for magazines, board and computer games, and created guidebooks on sexuality to educate adults of all ages.
Dr. Westheimer was born in Germany 1928 to Jewish parents whom she lost in the Holocaust. She later had a peripatetic upbringing, being sent to Switzerland as a child to escape the Nazis, and later moving to Israel, then Paris before arriving in New York in 1956. While the success she achieved has been described as an “only-in-America” story, she said in a 2019 interview with Vulture that it “could’ve only happened in New York City, because of the fact that New Yorkers are used to different accents.”
She earned a sociology master’s degree from The New School for Social Research in 1959. Westheimer returned in 2019 for an in depth conversation with Bill Ritter ‘16 about her remarkable career as part of the university’s Centennial celebration.
Westheimer was featured in the documentary, Asking Dr. Ruth, where she reflected on her life as she entered her 90s. In the same Vulture interview, it notes “what stands out most in Ask Dr. Ruth isn’t necessarily Westheimer’s delightfully frank talk about sexuality, or the unbelievable fact that she’s still writing books and making appearances and teaching even after turning 90. It’s Westheimer’s unflagging optimism and irrepressible lust for, well, everything.”