I received a notice of Brenda Brose Lazar’s death today from another classmate. Many of you remember how she and her husband organized an impromptu brunch at their home in 2001 when we held a mini-reunion in Tucson. I so enjoyed having a chance to view their magnificent Mexican mask collection.
Here is the obituary of this accomplished woman published in the Tucson Newspapers on 5/12/2008:
Dr. Brenda Brose Lazar Dr. Brenda Brose Lazar, patron of the arts, philanthropist, ophthalmic surgeon, and loving wife and mother, passed away peacefully May 10, 2008 at Tucson Medical Center Hospice facility after an eighteen month battle with lung cancer. She was 67. An ophthalmologist, Dr. Brose relocated from Chicago to Tucson in 1988. In Tucson she practiced with GHMA and then Tucson Eye Associates. She retired in August of 2006. An apt piano pupil, Brenda was classically trained by her mother in Mason City, Iowa. After receiving her undergraduate degree from Carlton College in Minnesota, she attended Northwestern University Medical School. She did her internship at Northwestern and residency at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. Brenda met Burt Lazar while they were students at Carlton and renewed their friendship when they had both moved to Chicago. The couple was married in December of 1966, and Brenda went into private practice in Evanston. They moved to Tucson in 1988. Brenda continued her practice of medicine and Burton became owner and president of Arizona Stagecoach. Brenda was on the board of directors with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra and a past president of the TSO’s Women’s Board. She was a past president of the Tucson Women Physicians Association and a board member of the Jewish Family and Children Services. She also supported the Tucson Museum of Art (TMA), the Arizona Theatre Company, and UA Presents. The TMA houses the Brenda and Burt Lazar collection of Mexican masks. She was an avid tennis player with Skyline Country Club. Brenda is survived by her husband, Burt, and their two sons in San Francisco, Adam, an environmental lawyer, and Larry, an internal medicine resident. A memorial service will be held at 3:30 p.m., Thursday, May 15, at Temple Emanu-El, 225 N. Country Club Rd., Tucson. Donations may be made in her memory to the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, and the Tucson Museum of Art.
