Dr. David McWhirter, well-known psychiatrist, academic and co-author of the book The Male Couple, died July 28 at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage. He was 74.

McWhirter and his partner of 34 years, Dr. Andrew “Drew” Mattison, co-authored the bestseller in 1984 in order to find out how gay male couples lived.

Mattison, who was diagnosed with stomach cancer in 2004, died in December. He was 57.

According to The Male Couple’s introduction: “We wanted to know how they handled work, chores, money, and their sexuality. We were interested in how they dealt with lovers, families, former wives, children, parents and friends.”

The book notes that 156 male couples in San Diego were interviewed over a five-year span, and a number of more complex issues arose throughout the course of the study. This work was pulled together to create The Male Couple, which has been praised as a landmark contribution to the study of gay male relationships.

According to Eli Coleman, Ph.D., professor at the University of Minnesota Medical School, “this book helped so many gay men understand the struggles in their relationships and gave ideas and models of how they could work through conflicts to sustain their relationships. This book continues to be very relevant today.”

The book was later released in video format, and a follow-up video entitled Male Couples Facing AIDS came out in 1988.

McWhirter was born March 29, 1932, in San Jose. His education included a bachelor’s degree in biology from Loyola University and a medical degree from the University of Southern California.

He worked for several years as an associate clinical professor of psychiatry and served as medical director of the San Diego County Psychiatric Hospital, where he is noted for his leadership in the turnaround of the facility in the late 1980s.

McWhirter, a board-certified psychiatrist and sexologist, served as medical director of the Clinical Institute for Human Relationships in San Diego. He also worked with the Kinsey Institute and was co-editor of Volume II of the Institute’s “Homosexuality/Heterosexuality: Concepts of Sexual Orientation” series.

Furthermore, McWhirter served as the president of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality (SSSS) from 1986 to 1987. The SSSS, according to its Web site, is “an international organization dedicated to the advancement of knowledge about sexuality.”

McWhirter was elected a fellow of the society for his “outstanding contributions to the sphere of sexual knowledge.” McWhirter’s partner, Mattison, later served as president of the organization, from 2003 to 2004.

Longtime community activist and philanthropist Benjamin Dillingham III knew McWhirter socially, and said “he was a giant in our community” due to the national reputation he and Mattison earned because of their book.

Dillingham called McWhirter the “proverbial mover and shaker” and noted that he was a “real gentlemen in our community.” He also said McWhirter had strong political connections.

“David was a strong supporter of the [San Diego Democratic] Club and a prominent member of the gay community,” said Doug Case, longtime board member of the club.

In 1983, the club held a roast of McWhirter at their annual Freedom Banquet. McWhirter was selected for that year’s event because of his status in the community and support of the club.

“In its early years, instead of awards ceremonies, the Freedom Banquets were fund-raisers that were roasts of prominent local or national gay and lesbian leaders,” Case said.

McWhirter made numerous contributions to the medical, psychiatric and gay communities. In the introduction to The Male Couple, McWhirter and Mattison state: “The chapters that follow are about the relationships between men who happened to be gay. It is our hope that what we have discovered about these lovers will be useful to all lovers everywhere.”

McWhirter and Mattison’s personal and professional collections are housed in the library of the University of California, San Diego’s LGBT Resource Center.