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Former Pa. Budget Secretary Michael Masch Dies
OB ITUARY
SOPHIE PANZER | JE STAFF
MICHAEL MASCH, finan-
cial and operations manager
for Pennsylvania, Philadelphia,
and several colleges and
universities, died Feb. 7 in
Washington, D.C. He was 70.

Masch served
as Pennsylvania’s secretary of
budget and administration under
former Gov. Ed Rendell from
2003 to 2008. Prior to that, he was
Philadelphia’s budget director
when Rendell was mayor. He
also served as the chief financial
officer of the School District of
Philadelphia from 2008 to 2012,
and as a senior policy analyst
for the Pennsylvania Budget and
Policy Center.

Speaking at Masch’s virtual
memorial service, Rendell said
Masch helped cut operating
costs and increase efficiency
at a time when Philadelphia
was facing a devastating deficit,
shedding jobs and losing
businesses. He described his
colleague as a brilliant public
servant, not only because of
his financial wizardry or public
speaking skills, but because he
understood what was at stake.

“Michael never forgot that
we weren’t playing a game with
numbers, or playing a game
with statistics. We were playing
in a battle that made people’s
lives better, that actually
mattered,” he said.

Masch also worked as
vice president for budget and
management at the University
of Pennsylvania and vice presi-
dent for finance and as chief
financial officer at Manhattan
College. He had been the senior
vice president, chief financial
officer and treasurer at Howard
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University since 2015.

“Mike Masch ran towards
fires with a heart full of love,”
Howard President Wayne A. I.

Frederick said at the memorial.

“He saw the most difficult
things that needed to be fixed,
and attempted to fix them. And
he attempted to do that in a
selfless manner for the good of
others.” Born Oct. 14, 1950, Masch
was adopted as a child and raised
in a tight-knit Jewish commu-
nity in Southwest Philadelphia.

Social life revolved around Beth
Am Israel synagogue, whose
leaders shaped Masch’s love for
Judaism. He graduated from Central
High School in 1968 and attended
Temple University, where he met
his future wife, Rachel Falkove.

They both realized they wanted
to pursue a Jewish life that was
more focused on social justice
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10 FEBRUARY 25, 2021
JEWISH EXPONENT
Michael Masch
than the postwar synagogues
of their childhoods had been.

Masch was inspired by the Black
Panthers and left-wing politics,
and Falkove was involved with
the environmental movement.

“By the time he got to
college, he was very taken with
the civil rights movement and
the antiwar movement,” she
said. “He was trying to synthe-
size Jewish life with what
was going on in our political
world.” He studied at Temple for
four years as an urban studies
major and dropped out just
before graduation. He later
earned a master’s degree in
government and public admin-
istration from the Fels Institute
of Government at Penn thanks
to significant professional
experience. He entered public life with
a job on the technical staff
of Philadelphia City Council
before working for Rendell.

Later, he helped create the
Philly Phlash transit line —
named after the Flash, one
of his favorite DC Comics
characters. As CFO of the city’s school
district, he helped restore it to
balanced and surplus budgets
from 2003 to 2007, although
he was criticized for failing
Courtesy of Rachel Falkove
to overcome state budget cuts
during the recession in 2010.

He eliminated state deficits,
produced surpluses
and increased state funding for
Pennsylvania’s 500 school
districts as secretary of budget
and administration. He created
the Pennsylvania Office of
Performance Improvement to
measure and improve perfor-
mance of state agencies in
this role.

He was passionate about
creating new forms of Jewish
community and worship,
writing for the Jewish Exponent
and becoming one of the
founders of the Germantown
Minyan. The group’s two
offshoots, Dorshei Derekh and
Minyan Masorti, are still active
at the Germantown Jewish
Centre. Friends and family knew he
was a big fan of comic books
and superheroes, loved a good
party and approached every-
thing with exuberance.

“He danced the hardest, he
sang the loudest and watched
the junkiest movies,” Falkove
said. “He had a good time. He
solved really big problems, and
he enjoyed it.” l
spanzer@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0729
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM