Presently, he is the President of Kessinger Enterprises, Inc. and owns a real estate business in Oxford, Mississippi. While writing his 2012 novel "Calico Joe,"—detailing a fictional young player on the Cubs in the early 1970s—author John Grisham drew from Kessinger's memories. "But Grisham gets the baseball right – among the people he consulted while writing the book was Don Kessinger, a longtime friend who was the Cubs' slick-fielding shortstop in the period the flashback portion covers." His grandson Grae Kessinger is a minor league player.