James O. Mason

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James O. Mason was the Acting Surgeon General of the United States from 1989 to 1990. A member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS or Mormons), 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, just at the beginning of the AIDS crisis in the US.

In 1989 the US Senate confirmed him as head of the US Public Health Service and later he served as the US delegate to the World Health Organization. In 1994, he was called as "General Authority" of the LDS Church, serving in its Second Quorum of the Seventy until 2000. He currently is a Trustee on the Evergreen International Board of Trustees, the LDS Church's controversial "cure ministry" for homosexuals. See his biography at http://www.evergreeninternational.org/Mason_bio.htm

Mason wrote a pamphlet for his church titled "Attitudes of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Toward Certain Medical Problems", which expresses conservative views on abortion, birth control, and homosexuality.

Preceded by C. Everett Koop

Surgeon General of the United States October 1, 1989–March 9, 1990

Succeeded by Antonia Novello