Margaret Louise (Murray) Blizard, 1919-1985

MMB, public health official, Democratic Party worker, and lawyer was the daughter of John H. and Mary C. Murray, and grew up in an Irish-Catholic family in the Jamaica Plain section of Boston. She attended Our Lady of Lourdes School and was graduated from Boston Girls' High School in 1936.

She prepared for teaching at Teachers' College of the City of Boston (later Boston Normal, and then Boston State), earning a B.S.Ed. in 1940 and an Ed.M. in 1941. She taught biology and chemistry in Boston public schools in 1942 and then joined an experimental public health program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she earned an M.P.H. in 1943. In 1946 she married Frederick W. Blizard; their three daughters, Janet, Carol, and Christine were born in 1947, 1955, and 1957. MMB earned her J.D. from Suffolk University in 1963.

In the public health field, MMB was Education Coordinator in the Boston Health Department, 1943-1945, 1946-1947, Director of Health Education for the Cambridge Tuberculosis and Health Association, 1945-1946, Coordinator of the Massachusetts Chest X-Ray Program in 1949, and Chief Coordinator of Health Education for Massachusetts, 1950-1956. She was Administrative and Legal Assistant to the Commissioner of Public Health until her retirement in 1981 (?).

When MMB was denied promotion to the post of Deputy Commissioner in 1972, she filed a charge of discrimination based on sex and age with the Massachusetts Commission against Discrimination. As a result her office was changed, she lost her secretary, her assignments were altered, and she was excluded from staff meetings and day to day contact with fellow staff members. In November l972 MMB filed a second charge of discrimination with the Equal Economic Opportunity Commission which in July l974 issued a determination finding probable cause. MMB filed suit in 1975 under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and lost her case in 1977. She won an appeal in 1978 but lost a second appeal in 1979. In 1981 she was reassigned out of the Commissioner's office, and retired shortly afterwards.

As part of her duties for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, MMB was involved in labor relations, in mental health, in studying a National Health Insurance proposal, and in serving on the Governor's Commission on the Status of Women.

In a volunteer capacity, MMB was active in many health organizations and associations: she was fellow, American Public Health Association (1950-1985); director, Massachusetts Public Health Association; president, Massachusetts Health Council, 1970-1971; trustee, Norwood Hospital, 1967-1978; trustee, Medfield State Hospital, 1963-1967; president, Medfield Foundation for Mental Health Research, 1967-1969; honorary director of the Massachusetts 4-H Foundation, and national and state director for the Epilepsy Foundation of America Inc.

As a lawyer MMB was associated with Kathleen Ryan Dacey, l963-1964, served as legal counsel for the Massachusetts Democratic State Committee, 1964-1968, and belonged to many state legal associations including, the Massachusetts Government Lawyers Association, for which she served as director, 1973-1977.

MMB was active in the Democratic Party in the town of Norwood, and at the state and national level. Besides being a member of the League of Women Voters in Norwood, 1957-1962, she was elected to the Democratic Town Committee of Norwood, 1960 and 1964. She ran unsuccessfully for the State Senate, 1956, and served as vice-president, then president, of Democratic Women on Wheels, 1959-1961. She was elected Democratic State Committeewoman, 1964 and l968, national convention alternate (1964) and delegate (1968), and delegate to the state conventions in 1964, 1966, and 1970. She participated in numerous campaigns, especially as state chairman of "Women for Humphrey." She was appointed a member the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services (DACOWITS), 1966-1968, and lobbied for the elimination discrimination in the promotion of women in the armed forces.

MMB was honored for her community and political service on numerous occasions. She was named "Woman Doer" by the Massachusetts Federation of Democratic Women, 1967, given the "Distinguished Citizen" award by Norwood LWV, 1968, named woman of the year by the Norwood Business and Professional Woman's Club, 1976, and given the Women of Achievement Award by the Massachusetts State Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs in 1977.

MMB died of cancer in 1985.

From the guide to the Papers, 1929-1985, (Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute)