Jordan Mathis succeeds Lloyd Berentzen at Bear River Health Department

Jordan D. Mathis

The following is the third story in a three part series chronicling the work of Lloyd Berentzen, former director of the Bear River Health District who recently retired.

The irony of Lloyd Berentzen’s final year as the Health Officer at the Bear River Health Department was that his official retirement was postponed by the pandemic from April 1, 2020, to exactly one year later.

That also allowed the Board of Health time to select a successor — Jordan Mathis — and have him come on board by Jan. 1 of this year.

“That was really helpful and then we’ve had a chance to just show some things there,” says Berentzen. “He’s now…acting, really after a month or so, as…the Health Officer. And then I moved into some legislative functions and trying to help there.

“And I was still the President of the Health Officer’s Association, so I had some duties there to fulfill, and then just wound that up and now the first of April, and actually my official retirement day was April 9th.”

Which was last Friday. He said it was emotional to step aside after 35 years in the same place.

“You work at something for a long time and then you transition out of that, there’s a bit of a loss. Obviously the associations are a loss, but I hope to maintain some of those,” Berentzen adds. “But certainly turning over the navigation of things is kind of a difficult thing, but at the same time it’s good, because there will be new ideas new things that can happen and I’m excited for the future of the Bear River Health Department.”

Jordan Mathis was the Health Officer for six years at the Tri County Health Department which covers Daggett, Duchesne and Uintah counties.


Part 1: Former BRHD director looks back at the COVID pandemic

Part 2: Lloyd Berentzen dealt with a pandemic and 191 other programs

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