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ICD DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD Throughout his professional career, Peter has
FOR PETER LAZAR AM maintained an active interest in oral health promotion
and research. He remains actively involved
with dentistry as a lay member of the Advocacy
Committee of ADA (NSW Branch) and provides
advice and assistance for dental research and OHP
projects. He serves pro bono as a board director of
the Royal Freemasons’ Benevolent Institution (RFBI),
a not-for-profit founded 140 years ago, which owns
and operates 22 residential aged care villages and 20
retirement villages and provides a comprehensive
range of at home care services across NSW and
ACT. Under Peter’s influence, RFBI has adopted oral
health as a significant focus of its care programs for
the welfare of its residents. In 2019, the aged care

The ICD Distinguished Service Award is a lifetime industry’s peak body in Australia, Aged & Community
achievement award recognizing outstanding service Services Australia (ACSA), named RFBI ‘National
Provider of the Year’ 2019/2020. Simultaneously,
to the College or the public over an extensive period
of time. The Distinguished Service Award is a rare Financial Review’s BOSS Magazine ranked RFBI as
honour within the College. The Section VIII Board is fourth in its list of the Most Innovative Companies
pleased to announce that the International Council in Australia. As an example of how successfully Peter
has approved an ICD Distinguished Service Award for has integrated oral health into the Royal Freemasons’
Benevolent Institution, it is estimated that RFBI has
Honorary Section VIII Fellow Peter Lazar AM (NSW).
provided over $400,000 in sponsorship support and
funding for oral health initiatives over the past five
years. RFBI has also provided $130,000 in recent
years for Sydney Rotary Aboriginal Oral Health
Scholarships to train 14 indigenous young people as
oral health instructors to work in remote Aboriginal
communities to improve oral health behaviours.

Please join the Board in congratulating Peter on his
ICD Distinguished Service Award in recognition of
his dedication to oral health promotion in Australia
that spans seven decades. COVID restrictions
have prevented formal presentation of the ICD
2003 Honorary Fellowship conferred by Distinguished Service Award to Peter. A suitable
International President Minoru Horiuchi occasion for the presentation will be arranged in due
Peter is now semi-retired from a long career in health course.
promotion and public relations. Peter’s long history
of oral health promotion began with his appointment
as the inaugural Director of the Dental Health
Foundation at the University of Sydney. He worked
with the late Prof. Noel D. Martin, Dr Sydney Dobbin,
Dr Derek Freeman and others in the early days of
water fluoridation in New South Wales. Peter’s
expertise in public relations was instrumental in Yass
becoming the first town in NSW to fluoridate its water
supply in 1956. That work led Peter to establishing
his communication consultancy, Professional Public
Relations (PPR), in 1973.

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