Dr. Myron S. (Mike) Mazer 85, of Mattapoisett, died February 1st after a long illness. Mike was born in Boston, and attended Boston Latin School where in his yearbook, it was written “He well knows what it is to be the favored friend of many”, a quote he lived up to all his life. He received his Bachelors degree from Boston University and his medical degree with Alpha Omega Alpha honors at University of Cincinnati where he was granted a Junior National Institute of Health fellowship in Gastroenterology. While at the University of Cincinnati Medical School, he volunteered to take the experimental polio vaccine developed by Dr. Albert Sabin and to attend and care for highly infectious patients who could not be admitted to the hospital and needed to be isolated into a separate facility outside the hospital environment. He did his residency at the Boston City Hospital on the Tufts medical service. He became a Fellow of Cardiovascular disease at West Roxbury VA Hospital, under the tutelage of Dr. David Littman and Dr. Eugene Braunwald including rotations through the Massachusetts General Hospital and Boston Children’s Hospital. He worked with Dr. Littman in the development of the Littman stethoscope. Mike practiced medicine for 35 years, while serving as Chief of Cardiology and Chief of Kidney Disease at the Good Samaritan Medical Center until his retirement in 1997. When asked of his achievements in his career, Dr. Mazer states “to have had the honor and privilege with his insatiable desire to be there for others who are in need of medical care and help. There can be no greater achievement in life”. He developed the first acute hemodialysis on the south shore of Massachusetts, also his team’s discovery and the first documentation of a Left Ventricular Myxoma by ultrasonography in 1982 subsequently published in the American Heart Journal. He was a LCDR, U.S. Navy, retired, having volunteered for active duty during the Vietnam War. After retiring, he renewed his endeavor in painting both in watercolor and oil and became a nationally and internationally award winning artist and a two-term President of the New England Watercolor Society. He was a designated U.S. Coast Guard artist, and exhibited his work across the county with many of his paintings in museums and public and private collections across the country. He was awarded the “Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award” in 2017 by Marquis Who’s Who Publishers. His work has been published in many Art books and an image of his watercolor titled “The Whaleman Statue” is on the cover of the book “A Bold and Hardy Race of Men: The Lives and Literature of American Whalemen” published by University of Mass Press. He leaves his wife of 35 years, Marilyn (Wood) Mazer, a daughter Pamela A. Mazer, a son Mark A. Mazer, and a sister Elaine R. Saunders. Mike was the son of the late Louis and Belle (Block) Mazer. He was formerly married to Barbara (Kane) Mazer. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Boston Children’s Hospital, 300 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, 450 Brookline Avenue, Boston, MA 02215. Private arrangements are with the Saunders-Dwyer Mattapoisett Home for Funerals, 50 County Rd. (Rt. 6), Mattapoisett. For directions and guestbook, visit www.saundersdwyer.com.
