Maurice "Mogie" Lazarus (June 27, 1915 – May 4, 2004) was an American retailing executive who served as president of

Filene's Filene's (formally William Filene & Sons Co.) was an American department store chain; it was founded by William Filene in 1881. The success of the original full-line store in Boston, Massachusetts, was supplemented by the foundation of its off-p ...

and founded

Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Harvard Pilgrim Health Care is a non-profit health services company based in Canton, Massachusetts serving the New England region of the United States. On August 14, 2019, the boards of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Tufts Health Plan announced ...

Biography

Lazarus was born to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family on June 27, 1915 in

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, an ...

, the son of Meta (née Marx) and

Fred Lazarus Jr. Fred R. Lazarus Jr. (October 29, 1884 – May 27, 1973) was an American founder of Federated Department Stores, which became Macy's, Inc. Early life Fred Lazarus Jr. was born to a Jewish family on October 29, 1884, the son of Rose (née Eichberg) ...

and great-grandson of

Simon Lazarus Simon Lazarus (1807–1877) was an American clothing retailer and the founder of the predecessor of what was to become The F&R Lazarus & Co., an operation which blossomed into what is today known as Macy's, Inc, a major retail holding company in ...

, the founder of

F&R Lazarus & Company F&R Lazarus & Company – commonly known as Lazarus – was a regional department store with its retail chain operating primarily in the U.S. Midwest, and based in Columbus, Ohio. For over 150 years, Lazarus was influential in the American retail ...

. His father co-founded

Federated Department Stores Macy's, Inc. (originally Federated Department Stores, Inc.) is an American conglomerate holding company. Upon its establishment, Federated held ownership of the regional department store chains Abraham & Straus, Lazarus, Filene's, and Shilli ...

in 1929 which entailed merging F&R Lazarus & Company (including its Cincinnati division, then known as

Shillito's John Shillito & Co. (commonly known as Shillito's) was Cincinnati's first department store. In 1817 John Shillito (November 1808-September 1879) arrived in Cincinnati (from Greensburg, Pennsylvania). The nine-year-old lad was soon working for th ...

Abraham & Straus Abraham & Straus, commonly shortened to A&S, was a major New York City department store, based in Brooklyn. Founded in 1865, it became part of Federated Department Stores in 1929. Shortly after Federated's 1994 acquisition of R.H. Macy & Company ...

, and William Filene's Sons of Boston, under a single holding company ( Bloomingdale Brothers of New York joined in 1930). As a youth, he worked at the local

Lazarus Lazarus may refer to: People * Lazarus (name), a surname and a given name * Lazarus of Bethany, a Biblical figure described as being raised from the dead by Jesus * Lazarus, a Biblical figure from the parable of the Rich man and Lazarus * Laz ...

store. In 1937, he graduated from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

. From 1945 until 1958, he worked at

Foley’s Department Store Foley's was a chain of department stores owned by May Department Stores and headquartered in Downtown Houston, Texas. On August 30, 2005, the division was dissolved and operation of the stores was assumed by Federated's Macy's West and Macy's So ...

(acquired by Federated in 1947) in Houston reaching to executive vice president. In 1958, he was named president of

where he served until 1964, chairman until 1965, and chairman of its finance committee until 1982. In 1989, he was founder of the Harvard Community Health Plan (now

). Lazarus served on the Harvard University board of overseers and was the director of the alumni association. He served on the

U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is a cabinet-level executive branch department of the U.S. federal government created to protect the health of all Americans and providing essential human services. Its motto is ...

's Advisory Committee on National Health Insurance and on the advisory board of the Commission on the Status of Women during administration of President

Lyndon Baines Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...

Personal life

Lazarus was married twice. In 1942, he married Nancy Stix; she died in 1985. His second wife was Nell Eurich (previously married to educator

Alvin C. Eurich Alvin Christian Eurich (June 14, 1902 – May 27, 1987) was a 20th-century American educator who is most notable for having served as the first president of the State University of New York from 1949–1951. Early life and education Eurich was bo ...

). He has two daughters: Carol Lazarus and Jill Lazarus with his first wife; and two stepchildren from his second wife, Donald Eurich and Juliet Eurich McDonough. Lazarus died of

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from transformed, malign ...

at his home in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge beca ...

, Massachusetts.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lazarus, Maurice 1915 births 2004 deaths 20th-century American Jews American retail chief executives Harvard University alumni American company founders 21st-century American Jews