By Associated Press, 5/6/2004

CAMBRIDGE -- Maurice Lazarus, who enjoyed two successful careers, one in his family's department store business and another as a founder of one of the nation's first health maintenance organizations, died Tuesday. He was 88.

Mr. Lazarus, whose family founded retail giant Federated Department Stores, died at his home in Cambridge after a battle with lung cancer, said his wife, Nell.

After retiring from retail, he was among the founders of Harvard Community Health Plan, now known as Harvard Pilgrim Health Care.

Family members described Mr. Lazarus as a man who filled his days with business and philanthropic pursuits, but did not rush through life.

"He was not a frantic person; he was a very calm, quiet, gentle person," his daughter Carol said last night. "He found time because he made time. Upon meeting him you would see a lot of energy in his eyes, but not franticness in his body. You always felt he had as much time as he needed for you."

"He was extremely sensitive," added his wife. "He had a terribly lively wit and a very quick wit. He could write poetry in his dreams."

A 1937 graduate of Harvard, Mr. Lazarus devoted time and energy to the university as a member of its board of overseers and director of the Harvard Alumni Association.

Born June 27, 1915, in Columbus, Ohio, Mr. Lazarus worked at Lazarus Department Store, the family business his great-grandfather established. It was during his time there that his father, Fred Lazarus Jr., cofounded Federated Department Stores with other regional department stores, including Filene's and Bloomingdale's.

Mr. Lazarus worked at Foley's Department Store in Houston from 1945 through 1958, rising to executive vice president. He was made president and treasurer of Filene's Department Store in 1958. He was president of Filene's through 1964 and was the Boston-based store's chairman of the board until 1965. He remained active in the company as chairman of its finance committee through 1982.

After his retirement, Mr. Lazarus, a longtime trustee of Massachusetts General Hospital and McLean Hospital, set upon a second career, in health care.

"He took the book list from the dean of Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health . . . and read them for a whole summer," his wife said.

In what he called "the second half of his life," he took what he learned from the family retail business and applied it to making health care more accessible and affordable.

He was also a member of the US Department of Health, Education and Welfare's Advisory Committee on National Health Insurance, and served on the advisory board of the president's Commission on the Status of Women during the Johnson administration.

"I think what interested him was to make health care more accessible and more universally available," his daughter said. "He was a finance person, and health care finances really fascinated him.

"He would tell me stories abut the fact that hospitals didn't know what anything costs," she said, adding that her father would tell her the federal government used to guess reimbursement rates for procedures.

Besides his wife and daughter, he leaves another daughter, Jill; a stepdaughter, Julie Eurich; a stepson, Donald Eurich; a sister, Ann Schloss of Cincinnati; and three grandsons. His first wife, Nancy Stix, died in 1985.

This story ran on page C19 of the Boston Globe on 5/6/2004.
© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.

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