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[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1630]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
HONORING THE LIFE OF FRED MAYER
______
HON. JARED HUFFMAN
of california
in the house of representatives
Thursday, December 19, 2019
Mr. HUFFMAN. Madam Speaker, I rise today in memory of Fred Mayer, who
passed away on December 10, 2019, at the age of 86 after a lifetime of
exemplary public service to his community.
Fred Mayer was born in Kansas City to Anna Landie Mayer and
Maximillian Philip Mayer. His father died when he was just six months
old and his mother reluctantly placed Fred and his older sister in
Jewish orphanages in Kansas City and Denver while trying to secure
employment to support the family. Mr. Mayer would later credit his time
in the Jewish orphanages with helping to develop his great sense of
justice. He would go on to champion causes that served the greater
community and would always put others above himself. When he was eight,
the family reunited and moved to San Francisco. At the age of 12, Mr.
Mayer started working at local pharmacies and later went on to graduate
from Lowell High School, the University of California, Berkeley, and in
1954, the pharmacy school at University of California San Francisco.
After graduating with his pharmacy degree, Mr. Mayer served in the
United States Army where he ran a mobile surgical unit in Germany.
Following his service in the Army, Mr. Mayer met and married
Jacqueline Levy Mayer in 1958, and a year later, they settled in San
Rafael, CA. In 1963, Mr. Mayer bought Sausalito Pharmacy and operated
it for 33 years. Mr. Mayer used his pharmacy as a place to educate the
community on various public health issues including the dangers of
smoking and the need for safe sex education. In the 1970s, Mr. Mayer
started a methadone program from within the pharmacy, and after a close
friend of his died of cancer, the pharmacy became one of the first
drugstores in the nation to stop the sale of tobacco. In 1974, Mr.
Mayer went back to school at the University of California, Berkeley, to
obtain a master's degree. Soon after, he founded a non-profit
organization, Pharmacy Planning Service Inc., where he continued to
deliver much needed community education on public health.
Known to all around him as larger-than-life, Mr. Mayer worked well
into his later years. Most recently, he worked to educate medical
cannabis users about interactions with other medications that might be
harmful. He was also well known for his Great American Smokeout
campaigns, bolstering National Condom Week, and his crusade to put
child safety caps on prescription medications.
Mr. Mayer was a well-respected community leader who will be
remembered for his dominant spirit and commitment to public service. He
is survived by his daughter Heidi and his sons David and Charles. While
he will be greatly missed, Mr. Mayer's legacy will live on through the
indelible positive impact he had on his many friends and family and the
community at large.
____________________
