Former mayor Masloff dies, 96
PITTSBURGH — Sophie Masloff, who rose from a tax clerk to become Pittsburgh’s first female mayor, died Sunday. She was 96.
She died at an area hospice, said Joseph Mistick, Masloff’s longtime friend and former top aide.
Masloff took office in May 1988 after the death of Richard S. Caliguiri, and she served until January 1994.
She described herself as an “old Jewish grandmother” and promised when she took office to be at work by 8 a.m. every day except Tuesdays when, she said, “I get my hair done.”
Her tenure was marked by two reductions in the city wage tax, a move designed to keep residents from fleeing to the suburbs, and a complete overhaul of a controversial disciplinary system for police officers.
Masloff faced enormous challenges when she took office because of the recent collapse of the steel industry, but Mistick recalled that she used a combination of humor and resolve to silence critics.
Masloff began her career in public service in 1936, when the Democratic Party took power in Allegheny County politics and the young Democrat, then Sophie Friedman, was given a job in the county tax office.
She stayed in government, working three decades as a county court clerk before winning a special election to City Council in 1976. She won re-election the following year and in 1981 and 1985. In her final term, she was Council president.
Masloff became the city’s first female mayor and its first Jewish mayor on May 6, 1988, when Caliguiri died in office of a rare illness.
Her funeral is scheduled for 11 a.m. Tuesday at Temple Sinai on Forbes Ave. in Pittsburgh. The service will be open to the public, but burial will be private.
