Jane Kessler

Elizabeth Jane Wilson (March 9, 1921 the daughter of Dustin Wilson, a chemical engineer; and Mary Elizabeth (Nelson) Wilson, a homemaker from Salem, Massachusetts. She subsequently attended Columbia University, earning her master's degree in psychology in 1943, and then served in the United States Navy She began working at the school as the teaching assistant to Dr. Benjamin Spock, often filling in to deliver class lectures when his fame took him away from classroom duties.

In 1976, she was named the Lucy Adams Leffingwell Distinguished Professor. She was president of the American Orthopsychiatric Association (1978–1979). She had already been a fellow of the organization and chairperson of the Council on Child and Youth Issues, and a fellow for the American Psychological Association and the American Association for Mental Deficiency, having served as the president of its Ohio chapter. She was also a mother; her son Martin is a musician, conductor and educator.

On March 9, 2021, Kessler turned 100. She died on July 21, 2025, at the age of 104.