In Praise of Barry Grossbach, a Civic Hero

Originally published by The Philadelphia Citizen

By Matt Bergheiser

In Philadelphia, it’s hard to miss the all-too-frequently published lists celebrating the city’s influencers, power brokers and changemakers. But there are other heroes who quietly and without fanfare do the heavy lifting of strengthening communities over years and decades.

Barry Grossbach, who died in mid-December of 2025 at the age of 86, was one such understated Philadelphia hero, meticulously shaping and improving his corner of West Philadelphia for more than 50 years.

Barry, a long-time professor of American history at Community College of Philadelphia, turned his voluntary pursuits into a nearly full-time endeavor — gathering friends, neighbors and anyone who would listen to plant trees, clean streets, improve public spaces and support local businesses. He often worked alongside his husband Mike Hardy, another quiet civic force who passed away in 2021.

One part Jane Jacobs for his commitment to small interventions that shaped city life, one part Mother Teresa for his relentless generosity, and one part Larry David for his honest and hilariously neurotic takes on everyday life, Barry was an unpretentious force of nature. He cajoled university presidents and major real estate developers alike into supporting the little things that make neighborhoods great. And he never stopped advocating for his block, his community, and his city.

Barry was a founding board member of University City District (UCD), the organization I’ve had the honor of leading for 16 years. It’s difficult to imagine UCD without Barry, and Barry without UCD. I first met him at my job interview with various university leaders. Barry, the sole “community representative” in the room, surreptitiously called me after the interview to tell me “the way things really are.” Barry, it seems, had already hatched a plan in his mind for fixing the politics, priorities, and plans of powerful interests in the neighborhood. I guess he saw me as the right partner in crime to help him continue to create good trouble.

In that conversation and every subsequent one over a decade and a half, Barry — even as he aged and his health deteriorated — was always focused on the future, not necessarily for himself but for the community he loved.

Barry and Mike were longtime and generous advocates of UCD’s efforts to green the neighborhood, and they made many financial contributions, including grants that helped establish and fund a Green Team dedicated to maintaining our public spaces, supported beautification projects along Baltimore Avenue and elsewhere in the neighborhood, and bolstered businesses during Covid shutdowns.

His final gift, received just a few days before his passing, was to bring 80 new trees to his home neighborhood of Spruce Hill. Barry truly lived the proverb advising us all to “plant trees under whose shade we do not expect to sit.”

In one of my last phone conversations with Barry, he shared what only a true local hero could feel: “People thank me for what I did for this community. But what they don’t know is that this community has done more for me than I’ve done for it. It allowed me to live the life I wanted to live.”

Here’s to Barry Grossbach on a life well-lived in service to his community, and to neighborhood heroes everywhere who undertake the hard, quiet work of civic change every day.