Shirley Zussman

Zussman was born Shirley Edit Dlugasch on July 23, 1914, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Zussman's father, Louis Dlugasch, was a doctor, and her mother, Sara, was a surgical nurse. She was raised in Brooklyn, and attended Girls High School.^[4]

Zussman received a bachelor's degree in psychology at Smith College in 1934, and a master in social work in 1937 from the New York School of Social Work at Columbia University. She received her doctorate in education in 1969 from Teachers College, Columbia University.^[4] Zussman was supervised through her graduate dissertation by Margaret Mead.^[5]

Zussman and her husband, Dr. Leon Zussman, a gynecologist, trained at the Masters and Johnson Institute in the 1960s. The two became directors of the Human Sexuality Center of the Jewish-Hillside Medical Center on Long Island in New York. Their practice centered on communication and developed physical and psychological exercises for their patients. In 1979, they wrote Getting Together: A Guide to Sexual Enrichment for Couples which was wide-ranging and compassionate.^[4] She later had a practice on East 79th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.^[6]

She was a two-term President of the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists,^[7] and co-director of the Human Sexuality Center of Zucker Hillside Hospital. Zussman was also past Director of the Association for Male Sexual Dysfunction.^[8]

Ruth Westheimer, the German-American sex therapist and talk show host known popularly as Dr. Ruth, studied under Zussman when she taught at Columbia University.^[9]

In her later years, in her practice Zussman often saw people much younger than herself; at age 99 she had patients in their twenties.^[10] She continued to practice as a sex therapist until she was 105 years old.^[4][5]