UMass Medical School's Aaron Lazare dies at 79

Photo courtesy UMass Medical School

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Dr. Aaron Lazare, the former head of the UMass Medical School who helped guide and grow the school for over 15 years, died Tuesday at the age of 79.

“It is with a deep sense of loss that we mourn the passing of Aaron Lazare,” UMass Medical School Chancellor Michael F. Collins said in a statement. “Dr. Lazare helped to transform the commonwealth’s public medical school into a leading hub for medical education, biomedical research and patient care.”

Dr. Lazare served as chancellor and dean of UMass Medical School (UMMS) from 1991 to 2007, leaving a lasting legacy, Collins said. Among the doctor’s accomplishments at the school were the building of the Brudnick Neuropsychiatric Research Institute, the 1998 merger with Memorial Health Care, the integration of Commonwealth Medicine and MassBiologics, and the expansion and modernization of the campus, Collins said in a release from UMMS.

Dr. Lazare’s accomplishments extend beyond UMass and into the professional field of psychiatry, where he conducted pioneering research on the importance of understanding the patient’s perspective on clinical outcomes and applying a negotiating paradigm to the doctor-patient relationship, according to UMMS. He authored the first textbook on outpatient psychiatry, five other books — including 2005's widely read "On Apology" — and 70 original articles and book chapters.

The doctor was also involved in efforts to improve adoption outcomes. In 1995, Dr. Lazare was appointed by Massachusetts Gov. William Weld to chair the Citizens’ Task Force on Adoption. One of the group’s recommendations was the establishment of a University of Massachusetts five-campus Center for Adoption Research and Policy, which Dr. Lazare founded in 1996. In 2001, Lazare received an Angel in Adoption Award from the Congressional Coalition on Adoption, a nonpartisan alliance of more than 160 members of Congress, in recognition of his efforts to improve the future for adoption and foster care nationwide and his own experiences as an adoptive parent.

After retiring from academic leadership in 2007, Dr. Lazare continued his research on shame and humiliation, and served as the chancellor and dean emeritus and professor of psychiatry at UMMS until his death.