M. Tucker Lazarus

M. Tucker Lazarus
Retired Federal Official
M. Tucker Lazarus, who retired from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission after many years as a Supervisory Engineer, and was more recently engaged as a petroleum consultant, died Thursday, October 19th of natural causes. He was a resident of Mount Airy, Maryland since 1992. Mr. Lazarus, a native of Springfield, Massachusetts, earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Geology cum laude from Marietta College in 1950 where he was a member of Marietta College’s intercollegiate varsity football team and their crew team. He pursued a master’s degree in petroleum geology and engineering at West Virginia University where he also took up flying, received a pilot’s license, and developed a lifelong interest in aviation and flight safety. After college, Mr. Lazarus began his professional career as an exploration geologist in the Louisiana Gulf Coast and was later engaged in the drilling and reservoir evaluation of a number of oil and gas wells in the Texas Gulf Coast region in the early 1950s. Shortly thereafter, he began his Federal career performing military intelligence work with the Strategic Intelligence Division of the U.S. Corps of Engineers in Washington, DC. In 1956, he was appointed to the staff of the Federal Power Commission (since 1977, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) and spent the next several years supervising the engineering aspects of the investigations of various oil and gas companies in Texas and Louisiana, testifying as an expert witness in the subsequent hearings. In 1971, Mr. Lazarus was selected to form the Environmental Evaluation Branch of the Federal Power Commission’s Office of Pipeline and Producer Regulation to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act. He developed the programs, procedures, and staffing necessary to ensure that the construction of natural gas pipelines and facilities licensed by the Commission would not have an adverse impact on the environment. He served as the Supervisory Environmental Engineer of this group until his retirement in December 1988.
As an Army veteran of World War II, Mr. Lazarus saw action in both the European Theater of Operations and the Pacific-Asiatic war zone. He first served in North Africa and then took part in the U.S. Fifth Army’s invasion of Italy in September 1943, making the assault landing with the 34th Infantry (Red Bull) Division. Mr. Lazarus participated in all major World War II campaigns and was awarded four Battle Stars. During the final phase of the hostilities, he was part of a special unit operating with partisans behind enemy lines in northern Italy in an ill-fated attempt to rescue wounded American prisoners-of-war from the retreating German army.
At the end of the war in Europe in 1945, his unit was among certain U.S. troops redeployed from Italy directly to the Pacific war zone through the Panama Canal aboard a small unescorted troop transport. En route, the transport carrying Mr. Lazarus as a young medic and infantryman was pursued by a Japanese submarine. This was a harrowing experience despite the able and welcomed assistance of the US Navy PBY Patrol bombers targeting the Japanese submarine. The enemy submarine survived numerous depth charge attacks unscathed, forcing the U.S. transport carrying infantryman Lazarus to seek refuge in the Port of New Guinea until it was safe to proceed to the Philippines. Thereafter, Mr. Lazarus took part in
the final operations in the Philippines. At the end of World War II, Mr. Lazarus was deployed to Japan where he served on the surrender and disarmament team, which narrowly missed the brunt of a disastrous typhoon off the coast of Okinawa. As a former tournament tennis player, Mr. Lazarus was active in local tennis circles. He was a past president of the Federal Departmental Tennis League and was the playing captain of the Federal Power Commission tennis team for a number of years. He was the tennis instructor at the Washington YWCA’s evening tennis program from 1970 until 1981 and was a tennis teaching professional at the Congressional Tennis Club for several years. Mr. Lazarus was a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, the Washington Society of Engineers, the Society of Petroleum Evaluation Engineers, and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. He was a Certified Petroleum Geologist and held a registration as a Certified Professional Geologist with the Commonwealth of Virginia. For more than 20 years Mr. Lazarus was an active and engaged member of Mount Airy’s Parks and Recreation Board. In addition, he served as a volunteer coach for youth basketball and soccer in the area. Mr. Lazarus was a volunteer science enrichment instructor at the Twin Ridge Elementary School and was also an active member of the school’s PTA Board. Mr. Lazarus was awarded a key to the Town of Mount Airy in recognition of his contributions to the community. He was a life member of the 34th Infantry Division Association and of the Disabled American Veterans. As a young Boy Scout, he was commended for his role in assisting victims of the New England Hurricane of September 1938. After finishing high school, he worked as a miller at the Springfield Armory making the Garand rifle of World War II fame. In later years, he would recall his acquaintance with its inventor, the late John Garand. During the two years prior to his March 1943 induction into the U.S. Army, Mr. Lazarus (while still a Boy Scout) served as an Air Raid Warden in the Forest Park section of Springfield, MA to enforce compliance with blackout restrictions imposed after the United States was drawn into World War II by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Mr. Lazarus was married to Stacy Michaels until their divorce in 2006, even so, they remained close friends until his death. Survivors include a daughter Sara-Michele (Ben) and a son Bradford, a grandson, and a number of devoted nieces, nephews, and cousins.
Funeral services will be held Friday, October 27th at 10am at the Semper Fidelis Memorial Chapel, located on the grounds of the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle, Virginia. Memorial donations may be made to Tucker’s favorite charity, the Washington Area Fuel Fund (www.washingtonareafuelfund.org) to help families in need stay warm through the winter.