Maurice Lazarus, 88; Filene’s President, Founder of HMO

Maurice Lazarus, 88, who was once president of Filene’s department store and later founded one of the nation’s first HMOs, died Tuesday at his home in Cambridge, Mass. He had lung cancer.

Born June 27, 1915, in Columbus, Ohio, 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., co-founded Federated Department Stores with other regional department stores, including Filene’s and Bloomingdale’s. Federated became a national retail giant.

Lazarus was president of Filene’s from 1958 to 1964 and was the Boston-based store’s chairman of the board until 1965. He was chairman of its finance committee through 1982. Later, Lazarus was among the founders of Harvard Community Health Plan, now the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care.

Lazarus, a 1937 graduate of Harvard, was a member of the university’s board of overseers and director of the alumni association. He was also a member of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare’s Advisory Committee on National Health Insurance and on the advisory board of the President’s Commission on the Status of Women during the Johnson administration.