Dr. Seuss Obituary

Dr. Seuss passed away from cancer on September 24, 1991, at his home in the La Jolla community of San Diego. He was 87.

Dr. Seuss was born Theodor Seuss Geisel on March 2, 1904, in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States to Theodor Robert Geisel and Henrietta Augusta Seuss Geisel. He had two siblings; Margaretha Christine Geisel Dahmen and Henrietta Bertha Geisel.

The American children’s author and cartoonist knew under the pen name Dr. Seuss wrote more than 60 books.

Geisel graduated from Dartmouth College in 1925. After graduating, Seuss enrolled at Lincoln College, Oxford to pursue a doctoral degree in English literature, however, he left Oxford in 1927 to start his career as an illustrator and cartoonist for Vanity Fair, Life and various other publications.

He published his first children’s book And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street in 1937.

During World War II, Geisel took a break from children’s literature to illustrate political cartoons, working at animation and film department of the United States Army. While there he wrote, produced, or animated many productions including Design for Death, which subsequently won the 1947 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film.

After the war, Geisel returned to writing children’s books like If I Ran the Zoo (1950), Horton Hears a Who! (1955), The Cat in the Hat (1957), How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1957), Green Eggs and Ham (1960), One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish (1960), The Sneetches and Other Stories (1961), The Lorax (1971), et al.

His published books have spawned several adaptations, including 11 television specials, five feature films, a Broadway musical, and four television series.

Geisel won several awards including Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, the Regina Medal award from the Catholic Library Association and two Primetime Emmy Awards.

On December 1, 1995, the University of California, San Diego’s University Library Building was renamed Geisel Library in honor of Geisel and Audrey for the generous contributions that they made to the library and their devotion to improving literacy. His birthday has been officially recognized as National Read Across America Day.

In 2008, Dr. Seuss was inducted into the California Hall of Fame. He was also honored with a Google Doodle on March 2, 2009 in celebration of his 105th birthday.

Suess was married to Audrey Geisel from 1968–1991 and Helen Palmer from 1927–1967.