University Times

Nathan J. Stark, who served as Pitt's vice chancellor for Health Sciences from 1974 to 1984, died of cancer Nov. 11, 2002, at his home in Washington, D.C. He was 82.

A lawyer by training, Stark retired from Pitt to become a partner in the Washington, D.C., law firm of Fort & Schlefer, specializing in health policy. At the time of his death he was treasurer and past president of the National Academy of Social Insurance.

During his career, Stark held a variety of high-level positions in government and the corporate world, as well as in health administration.

In 1974, Stark was appointed vice chancellor for Health Sciences at Pitt, succeeding the retiring Francis S. Cheever. As vice chancellor, Stark oversaw the Pitt schools of medicine, public health, nursing, dentistry, pharmacy and health-related professions.

He took a year and a half hiatus from the position in 1979 when he was appointed as undersecretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in the Carter administration. He returned to Pitt and served as senior vice chancellor for Health Sciences until he retired in 1984.

According to friend and former colleague Gordon MacLeod, professor of health services administration at Pitt, "Nathan had a special talent to coordinate from an administrative position quite disparate views, those of physicians and those of administrators both on a hospital administrative level and a University level. As a health policy lawyer, he had been very active with academic medical centers. We talked at length about the need to merge community resources with the academic component of the medical center here," said MacLeod who worked with Stark as a director of planning.

"Nathan was very interested in improving health care delivery," added Stark's friend Mark Perlman, Pitt professor emeritus of economics. "He also was very influential for bringing in foundation support," such as from the Richard King Mellon Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, with whom he worked as a consultant in 1973.

Perlman said that much of what Stark did he came to as an outsider. "But he had such a quick grasp of the political structure, and was always able to shape and influence that structure," Perlman said.

"He was an extraordinarily gentle soul, who created an atmosphere around him that was comfortable. There was a total absence of enmity in his character, and he never tried to aggrandize himself in his work," which is especially unusual for a high-level administrator, Perlman said.

A native of Minneapolis, Minn., Stark received an associate's degree from Wilson Junior College in Chicago in 1940.

He was on active duty in the Merchant Marines from 1942 to 1945, earning a B.S. from the Merchant Marine Academy in 1943.

While a cadet midshipman in 1942, the merchant ship he was serving on was torpedoed by a German submarine. He and his comrades spent 42 days in a lifeboat in the Atlantic Ocean. The stranded merchant marines had to navigate between 900 and 1,000 miles to land in the Bahamas.

"I think that was a defining moment in his life," Perlman said. "They lost no one in that lifeboat, and I think Nathan was the life of the party. He had the kindest manner. He was always very friendly and upbeat and that carried over to his whole life."

The ordeal at sea cost Stark 40 pounds, but earned him a Mariner's Medal from the Merchant Marines.

In 1945-1946 he served as a lecturer on navigation and seamanship for the U.S. Maritime Service's Officers School in New York City.

In 1947 he graduated from Kent College of Law in Chicago and was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1948.

Stark began his corporate career in 1949 as plant manager for the Englander Company in Kansas City, Mo.

In 1952 he was admitted to the Missouri bar and for two years practiced law with the firm of Downey-Abrams-Stark & Sullivan.

He served as vice president of Rival Manufacturing Company, Inc., also in Kansas City, from 1954 to 1959 when he became senior vice president of operations for Hallmark Cards, Inc., overseeing domestic and international production from design to shipment.

He became chairman of the board and CEO of Crown Center Redevelopment Corp., a Kansas City redevelopment project financed by Hallmark Cards, Inc., in 1971.

During his time in Missouri, Stark served as chairman of the board of directors at the Kansas City General Hospital and Medical Center, among several civic positions.

He also was a consultant for the establishment of a number of medical and health care complexes, including at the University of Virginia, the Technical University of Texas and the University of New Mexico.

He advised Blue Cross, the Health Services Mental Health Administration and the U.S. House of Representatives Advisory Panel on National Health Insurance, among numerous other groups.

In 1974 Stark was awarded the American Citation of a Layman for Distinguished Service from the American Medical Association.

Stark's wife Lucile was the director of the library at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic from 1975 to 1985.

In addition to his wife, Stark is survived by a daughter, Margaret of Milton, Mass.; and three sons, Robert of Amsterdam; David of Tokyo, and Paul of Jenkintown, Montgomery County, Pa.

A memorial service will be held Nov. 25 at the Cosmos Club in Washington, D.C.

–Peter Hart