IN MEMORIAM
A HUMBLE GENIUS
by Dan O’Connor
Beloved professor David Festinger, PhD, remembered as an amazing instructor and researcher—and an even better person.
Dr. Festinger, a renowned researcher and esteemed faculty member, will be remembered for his selflessness as much as for his genius.
He was the smartest and the nicest guy in the room. He was also a bit of a Big Deal. You’d never know it, though, because David Festinger, PhD, would make such a big deal out of you that you’d almost forget he was a renowned clinical psychologist who’d won multiple opioid addiction research grants and published paper after paper. That will be Dr. Festinger’s enduring legacy. Not his genius or his grants, but how he made his friends, family, colleagues and students feel that they were the best and the brightest. Dr. Festinger, a professor in the Department of Psychology and director of Substance Abuse Research and Education at PCOM, passed away suddenly at age 58 on November 9, 2021. Only now will the man who measured his own success not by his lengthy list of awards and accomplishments, but by others’ happiness, bask in the spotlight he did his best to avoid during a storybook career. “David was exceptionally humble. He was one of those rare geniuses who was also just an incredible person,” says Michelle R. Lent, PhD, clinical psychologist and associate professor, PCOM School of Professional and Applied Psychology. “David was by far one of the most special people I’ve ever encountered. He was universally liked and admired.” In the four years that Dr. Lent worked alongside Dr. Festinger, they were awarded five grants together, including PCOM’s largest-ever research funding award— a $5.5 million contract in 2019 from the Patient-Centered 28
PHILADELPHIA COLLEGE OF OSTEOPATHIC MEDICINE
Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to study the effectiveness of psychosocial treatments for individuals receiving medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorder. “Most people get one big grant in their lives,” says Dr. Lent. “David came to PCOM with multiple grants from NIH [National Institutes of Health], which is more than an entire department would have in a decade.” Even Dr. Festinger, the study’s principal investigator, could hardly contain his excitement over the PCORI grant. “He was so happy and excited to be able to build this program at PCOM. But he shared everything. Whatever he earned, he didn’t consider it his, he considered it everybody’s,” says Dr. Lent. At a meeting at a research institute in Washington, DC, Dr. Festinger was smitten by the branded coffee mugs being given away. In plain sight of all, Dr. Festinger stowed as many mugs as would fit into his luggage so that he could distribute one to each member of the research team back at PCOM. “That was David,” says Dr. Lent. “It was hilarious. He’s so charming and lovable, almost innocent in wanting to take extra mugs home because he was so proud of the fact that we had gotten this grant. David was so good-natured that it didn’t matter to anyone that he was taking the mugs.” Then there was the ceremony marking his induction as a fellow in The College of Physicians in Philadelphia. As is customary for new inductees, Dr. Festinger got to inscribe his name in a centuries-old book that lists some of the
