Dr. Joseph B. "Brett" Lazar, a former deputy director of health for the state of Utah who earlier had been public health officer for Howard County, died Aug. 1 from a brain tumor at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Columbia. He was 78.
The son of Dr. Martin Lazar, a physician, and Muriel Lazar, a homemaker, Joseph Brett Lazar was born in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and graduated in 1955 from Curtis High School in Staten Island, N.Y.
He was a 1959 graduate of the University of Vermont, where he earned a bachelor's degree in history. He obtained his medical degree in 1966 from Albany Medical College in Albany, N.Y.
Dr. Lazar served two years in the Air Force and then completed both an internship and a residency on obstetrics and gynecology at Sinai Hospital.
He then received a master's degree in public health from what is now the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
He and Judi Schein married in 1961 and settled in Columbia in 1968. Mrs. Lazar worked there as a clinical social worker and psychotherapist from 1975 to 1988.
From 1968 to 1985, Dr. Lazar was public health officer for Howard County. During his tenure, he established programs for family planning, mental health, smoking cessation and other vital community health functions.
In 1985, he moved to Salt Lake City and was named Utah deputy director of health, a position he held until retiring in 2002. During the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, he was a lead medical consultant, family members said.
In 2004, Dr. Lazar and his wife returned to Columbia. He was a member of Hobbit's Glen Golf Club where, according to family members, he played "thousands of rounds" of golf. He also was an expert skier.
He was a member of the Columbia Jewish Congregation.
Funeral services were held Friday at Columbia Memorial Park.
In addition to his wife of 55 years, Dr. Lazar is survived by two sons, David Lazar of Seattle and David Todd Lazar of Taos, N.M.; two brothers, Michael Lazar of Syracuse, N.Y., and Gerald Lazar of Salt Lake City; and three grandsons.
— Frederick N. Rasmussen