School official had 40 years at Bedford

5/1/2005

BLISSFIELD - Arthur W. Maschke, 85, who was a teacher, football coach, athletic director, principal, and personnel director during 40 years with Bedford schools, died Thursday in Toledo Hospital from complications of a stroke.

Mr. Maschke retired in 1982 as director of personnel and employee relations, a post he held for 13 years. He was chief labor negotiator for the school system and oversaw teacher hiring.

"He was a very fair man. He was always for the teacher," said his wife, Phyllis, herself a former teacher.

He and teachers might disagree on a particular issue, "but they had respect for him, and they finally realized what a great person he was for the teacher after the fact."

He was principal of Bedford High School for 12 years. He was head football coach before that, and his players "remember Art very much as being a father figure," his wife said. "He was a good person with those men, making them do their best."

Mr. Maschke grew up in Detroit and received a bachelor of science degree in education from Eastern Michigan University, where he played football. He received a master's degree from the University of Michigan and attended Michigan State University.

He joined the Navy during World War II and attended an accelerated officer training program at Columbia University in New York City. He became an ensign and advanced to lieutenant-junior grade. He served aboard a PT boat in the Pacific Theater. He received a Purple Heart.

He and his wife made a cross-country trip in 2002, from their winter home in Florida to San Diego, to attend a PT boat captains convention.

He was a member of the Lenawee Country Club, where he liked to golf.

Mr. Maschke was preceded in death by his first wife, Betty Buerk, whom he married Dec. 31, 1941.

Surviving are his wife, Phyllis McMacken Maschke, whom he married July 6, 2000; son, Gary Maschke; stepson, James McMacken; stepdaughters, Ellen Bacon and Karen Adamski, and 10 step-grandchildren.

Services will be at 11 a.m. Tuesday in the Michael W. Pawlak Funeral Home, Temperance, where the body will be after 2 p.m. tomorrow.The family suggests tributes to a charity of the donor's choice.