[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 82 (Friday, May 1, 2020)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E407]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





                    IN RECOGNITION OF DR. ALEX AZAR

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. MICHAEL C. BURGESS

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                          Friday, May 1, 2020

  Mr. BURGESS. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize Dr. Alex Azar, 
80, of Salisbury, MD. He is remembered as a brilliant and devoted 
physician, passionate for his family and community.
  Born May 4, 1939, in Johnstown, PA Dr. Azar graduated from Westmont 
Hilltop High School in 1957. He attended University of Pittsburgh at 
Johnstown for three years before accepting early admission to Pitt's 
Medical School where he graduated magna cum laude in 1964. He was a 
member of Alpha Omega Alpha, an Honor Medical Society membership I 
shared with him, as well as Phi Beta Kappa.
  After interning at Conemaugh Valley Memorial Hospital, he served as a 
Captain in the US Army Medical Corps at Fort Bliss, TX from 1965-1966. 
He eventually completed a preventive medicine and ophthalmology 
residencies at the Ohio State University.
  In 1976, Dr. Azar joined Dr. Robert Dickey in practicing 
ophthalmology in Salisbury. Over the course of 40 years, he founded 
both the Peninsula Eye Center and the Azar Eye Institute. He discovered 
several new and innovative eye surgical techniques and ophthalmology 
care to several communities on the peninsula across southern MD and DE.
  He was noted for his devotion to his patients, never denying care 
because of a patient's inability to pay. He often made house calls in 
the evening, even performing eye surgery on a patient in a rocking 
chair on his porch on Smith Island.
  As part-time faculty of the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins 
University, he was voted most outstanding part-time professor in 
ophthalmology in 2011 and 2012. In 2015, he received the prestigious 
Arnall Patz Fellowship Award through the local Lions Club and the 
Wilmer Institute for his contributions to the field of ophthalmology.
  In 1996, Governor Schaeffer appointed Dr. Azar as the first and only 
physician member on the five member MD Health Care Access and Cost 
Containment Commission. He held various state and county medical 
society leadership positions, including President of MedChi, the 
Maryland State Medical Society.
  An active member of his community, Dr. Azar served on the Board of 
Directors of the local YMCA, the Board of the Three Lower Counties, the 
Center for a Healthy Maryland, the local Humane Society, as treasurer 
of the Camp Horizon Board of Directors, and as an officer of the 
Greater Salisbury Committee. He was also a 32nd degree Mason, a member 
of Wicomico Lodge #91, Tall Cedars of Lebanon, and the Scottish Rite.
  I am honored to acknowledge the legacy of a fellow caregiver and 
community servant. I join his family and community today in celebration 
and memory of his lifetime of meaningful contributions to humanity.

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