Former mayor of Atlantic City
Joseph Lazarow, 84, who presided as mayor of Atlantic City, N.J., during the dawn of the casino industry, died Thursday in St. Petersburg, Fla., after a long illness, said his daughter, Robin Lazarow. She declined to identify the illness.
Lazarow, a low-key attorney and Atlantic City native who had little political experience, was elected to the City Commission -- now the City Council -- in 1972. His counterparts on the council named him mayor in 1976, the start of the aging beach town’s transformation into a glittery gambling mecca. He was mayor until 1982.
The first casino opened in 1978 after Lazarow was named chairman of the Committee to Rebuild Atlantic City, which supported a ballot measure to open casinos as an urban redevelopment tool.
In July 1977, Lazarow bested a world record set by Teddy Roosevelt in 1901 for shaking hands in a single day. Lazarow did it 8,514 times, beating Roosevelt’s record of 8,513, according to Guinness World Records.
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