DAVID MOESSINGER '52

Inducted: October, 2005

David Moessinger ‘52, has had a long and varied career in the television industry, wearing the hats of writer, director and producer. After beginning his media career as a freelance television writer, he became the executive producer on many popular and acclaimed series, including Walker, Texas Ranger; Murder, She Wrote; In the Heat of the Night; Jake and the Fatman; Simon and Simon; Blue Thunder and Quincy, M.E.

As a writer and director, he worked on such shows as Eight is Enough; Father Dowling Mysteries; Knots Landing; Kung Fu; Wild, Wild West; Serpico; Kraft Suspense Theater; Mission Impossible; Police Woman and Police Story. He also wrote the motion picture Number One, which starred Charlton Heston. He was executive producer of the 1983 movie M.A.D.D.: Mothers Against Drunk Drivers, a movie starring Mariette Hartley portraying Candy Lightner, the founder of Mothers Against Drunk Drivers. He was the screen writer for the 1981 acclaimed television movie The Best Little Girl in the World, starring Jennifer Jason Leigh as a young girl battling anorexia nervosa.

During his years in the industry, Moessinger received two Emmy Award nominations, a People’s Choice nomination, two Gabriel awards and a Scott Newman award plus citations from the Arthritis Foundation and American Women in Radio and Television.

In 1948 he endured a 14-hour train trip from Albany, N.Y., to arrive in Greencastle, Ind., and graduated from DePauw in 1952 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in art. He was a member of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity and lettered in football. After graduation he served as an officer in the United States Marine Corps before beginning his career in television. It was in the Marine Corps that he first learned to use a camera.

Moessinger has served on the Eugene S. Pulliam Center for Contemporary Media’s Board of Advisors. He is now retired and lives in northern California with his wife, Jeri Taylor.

Moessinger as he appeared in the
1952 "Mirage Yearbook."

 Next -->