Called by Ezra Taft Benson Predecessor C. Everett Koop Successor Antonia Novello | Name James Mason End reason Honorably released | |
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Full Name James Ostermann Mason Born June 19, 1930 (age 93)
Salt Lake City, Utah, United States ( 1930-06-19 ) Education University of Utah, Harvard University | ||
James Ostermann Mason (born June 19, 1930) is an American physician and public health administrator. He was the United States Assistant Secretary for Health (ASH) from 1989 to 1993 and the Acting Surgeon General of the United States from 1989 to 1990. As the ASH he was also a former four-star admiral in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. He was also a director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).
Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, Mason earned B.A. and M.D. degrees from the University of Utah and a masters and Ph.D. of Public Health degrees from Harvard University. He was the first managing director of the LDS Church's Unified Welfare Services, directing the church's hospital system. He served as the executive director of the Utah Department of Health until 1983, when he was named director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia; Mason held the directorship of the CDC until 1990. In 1993, he was presented with the Gorgas Medal from the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States (AMSUS).
In 1989, the U.S. Senate confirmed Mason as Assistant Secretary for Health, which made him head of the United States Public Health Service, and Acting Surgeon General. He later served as the American delegate to the World Health Organization. In 1994, he was appointed as a general authority by the LDS Church, serving in the Second Quorum of the Seventy until 2000. From 2000 to 2003, Mason was president of the church's Bountiful Utah Temple.
As a young man, Mason served an LDS Church mission to Denmark. Before his appointment as a general authority, Mason served in the church as a bishop, stake president, and regional representative. In 1974, while serving as Church Commissioner for Health Services, Mason wrote a pamphlet for the church titled, "Attitudes of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Toward Certain Medical Problems", which expresses the church's views on abortion, birth control, and homosexuality.