Age:  37
Served: 7 years
1978 to February 9, 1985

Specialist Massel was a ‘Big Brother’, gourmet cook, and law enforcement officer, trainer, and educator with a Masters Degree and working on his doctorate in Criminal Justice.  He agreed to cover for another Woodlawn officer that needed to be off on February 8, 1985.  Little more than two hours into his shift, on February 9, 1985, Specialist Massel was driving his marked police vehicle 25 miles per hour north on Springfield Pike.  A car was driven out of a bar (now Pike’s Bar and Grill) at 10010 Springfield Pike, turned south, accelerated, and crossed the centerline striking Specialist Massel’s police cruiser head on.  In the crash, Specialist Massel suffered fractured skull, sternum, ribs, and left femur and subscalpular hemorrhages.  Woodlawn paramedics tried to resuscitate him and rushed him to University Hospital in Cincinnati where he was pronounced dead at 1:18 a.m. by Dr. Steven Bernardon.  The drunken driver of the striking vehicle was also killed.

Specialist Massel was survived by and the only child of his mother, Rebecca Massel.  He was buried on February 11, 1985, in the Covedale Cemetery in Cincinnati.  Memorials have been placed throughout Woodlawn by fellow officers, B’nai B’rith, and the community and a scholarship was established in his name in 1987 at University of Cincinnati.

If you have further information, artifacts, or pictures of this officer, please contact the Museum Director at Director@GCPHS.com.