last word
THE RACE CONTINUES FOR LA SALLE PROFESSOR
Joshua Buch
JARRAD SAFFREN | STAFF WRITER
32 MAY 5, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
Dan Nguyen/La Salle University Photography
B lue Bell resident and La Salle
University finance Professor
Joshua Buch turned 85 on April
28. Then he ran in the Penn Relays at
Franklin Field two days later.

Buch completed the 100-meter dash in
the 80-and-older group in 21.33 seconds,
placing fourth. But the Jewish runner’s
goal was not to finish first, he said.

It was to run his race.

“I just want to be there and finish,”
Buch said before the event.

The octogenarian didn’t start run-
ning until his late 70s. While playing
tennis one day, his opponent told him,
“I never saw anyone run like you,”
according to a post about Buch on La
Salle’s website. The opponent also sug-
gested that Buch sign up for a 75-and-
older race at the Penn Relays.

The professor started doing research
and quickly signed up. The 2022 relays
marked the Blue Bell resident’s “sixth
appearance and his first since 2019,”
said Chris Vito, La Salle’s senior direc-
tor of communications, in that website
post. (Both the 2020 and ’21 events
were canceled due to the pandemic.)
Buch, though, doesn’t consider him-
self a runner. He says many runners are
better than him.

He is, however, a man who never
stops running.

Buch is finishing his 51st year as a
finance professor at La Salle. Every
morning, he reads The Wall Street
Journal before his 8 a.m. class; he says
he needs to keep up with what’s going
on in the finance world. Then he makes
sure to get his 10,000 steps in before
lunchtime, taking most of them in his
classroom while teaching.

The professor walks all over the
place, writes on the board, erases the
board and writes some more. He also
likes to call on different students and
converse with them.

A month ago, he presented an aca-
demic paper at a conference. After that
event, he reminded his students that he
would be training for the Penn Relays
the next day.

Buch was not bragging; he was teach-
ing a life lesson.

“I just stay active physically and
mentally,” Buch said. “You keep being
active, and all will be good.”
In his spare time, Buch also plays
tennis, researches his family history
and watches “some stupid damn TV,”
he said. He has time for it all because
he’s not wasting his days on his cell-
phone or napping, he added.

The professor does not want to
become one of those old people who
naps during the day and then can’t
sleep at night. As he explains, human
beings “can only sleep a certain num-
ber of hours.”
For Buch, this active approach to life
starts with a mindset.

“The glass is always half-full, maybe
three-quarters full,” he said.

The Israeli became indefatigable
as a kid in the Jewish homeland. He
remembers his father “getting up in the
morning to work very hard.” When the
father brought his son to help pick up
oranges in his groves, the young boy
picked up the same work ethic.

He’s been like that ever since, accord-
ing to his brother Udi Buch.

“He never stops being worried about
everything and everybody in every
way,” the brother said. “He’s concerned
about everything around him.”
After earning his degree in agron-
omy in Israel, Buch wanted to get an
MBA, too. But at the time, Israel did
not have a program. So, the 25-year-old
got a visa and came to stay with family
members in Philadelphia.

Then he applied to Temple University,
got in and earned his MBA. After that,
he earned a Ph.D. at the University
of Pennsylvania for good measure.

Finally, in 1971, Buch applied for a
teaching job at La Salle and landed it.

More than 50 years into his career,
he still loves math, issues related to
the exchange rate and various other
finance topics. But more than the sub-
ject itself, Buch enjoys his students.

Year after year, this aging professor
doesn’t age; and it’s probably because
he keeps interacting with young peo-
ple, he says.

“It’s never the same. It can be quite
challenging,” Buch added. “Students
ask us questions sometimes and it’s
really neat. You have to be on your toes.

These kids are smart.”
Deb Buch, the professor’s wife, also
credits the students for keeping her hus-
band young. By taking on new groups
each year, the runner is embracing new
challenges and experiences, too.

And that’s just how he lives in gen-
eral, according to Deb Buch. Much like
running, the professor did not pick up
tennis until he was a much older man.

“He continues to do new things. He
constantly is reinventing himself,” Deb
Buch said. JE
jsaffren@midatlanticmedia.com