Accountant Barry S. Glass Dies at Age 90, Remembered as ‘Mensch’ and Sinatra Devotee

September 20, 2023 JMORE Staff

Barry Simon Glass, founder of the regional accounting firm of Glass, Jacobson and Associates, died Tuesday, Sept. 19, from issues related to advanced dementia. He was 90.

A Pikesville resident and Chizuk Amuno congregant, he was the father of Ira Glass, the Baltimore-born, Pulitzer Prize-winning host and producer of the radio program “This American Life.” He was also a cousin of acclaimed American avant garde composer Philip Glass.

“Barry was a mensch with a dry sense of humor, a man of unassailable integrity with a sense of honor and fair play,” his family posted on the website of Sol Levinson & Bros. funeral home. “He worked hard in his life to provide his children with the stability, paternal love and financial security he didn’t have growing up.”

A Baltimore native, Barry Glass was the son of Dr. Louis Joseph Glass and Frieda Friedlander Glass. His maternal grandfather, Isadore Friedlander, owned and operated a corner grocery store in Southwest Baltimore.

After his parents’ divorce, Glass and his brother, Lenny, were raised by his mother and her relatives.

Working at his grandfather’s store on Bayard Street at a young age greatly impacted Glass, wrote his family: “His grandfather was a loving, generous person, but not the best businessman. Customers would pay on credit, but rather than keep a record of that in the store, each one would have their own ‘book of accounts’ which they would take home. Now and then, some would announce to Isadore, ‘I can’t find the book,’ and they’d have to estimate what was owed.

“Barry thought the family lost a lot of money that way. He tried to do better for his clients as a CPA.”

After graduating from Baltimore City College’s class of 1951, Glass attended the University of Maryland, College Park, where he helped establish the college radio station WMUC and became a disc jockey using the on-air moniker of “Buddy Leonard.”

Barry Glass is shown here in his college radio disc jockey days as “Buddy Leonard.”

On Thanksgiving of 1955, Glass married Richmond, Virginia, native Shirley Bernice Politzer after a four-year courtship. A short while later, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and stationed in Arlington, Virginia.

In 1962, Glass started his own accounting firm, which eventually became Glass, Jacobson and Associates (now known as the Owings Mills-based Glass Jacobson Wealth Advisors).

Shirley Glass became a nationally-known psychologist and author branded “the godmother of infidelity research” by the New York Times. The Glasses were married for 48 years until Shirley’s death in October of 2003 at the age of 67.

In 2005, Barry Glass married Sandra Blum, whom he knew since high school.

In his spare time, Glass enjoyed listening to popular music, particularly the recordings of Frank Sinatra, playing golf, and watching and rooting for the Baltimore Ravens.

In 1996, Ira Glass interviewed his dad for a special Father’s Day episode of “This American Life” that was recently rebroadcasted.

Glass is survived by his wife; his daughter, Randi Murray (David Meckel); his son, Ira Glass, and his daughter, Karen Glass. He is also survived by his grandchildren, Samuel Murray, Benjamin Murray and Zachary Barry; his stepsons, Glenn (Linda Cameron), Mark (Elena) and Neil (Susan) Gilmor, and their children, Mack (Becky), Gray, Ruby (Nick), Bella, Jordan, Kara, Daniel and Sydney; and grandchildren, Cahill and Millie.

In addition, Glass is survived by his brother, Dr. Leonard (Susan) Glass of San Diego, and Leonard’s children, Julie, Amy and Holly; his brother-in-law, Bennett Politzer; his brother-in-law, Barry Blum (Katy Loos); and his half-sister, Bobbi Perlman.

Funeral services were held at Sol Levinson & Bros. in Pikesville on Thursday, Sept. 21. Interment at Har Sinai Cemetery.

Donations in memory of Barry Glass can be sent to Chizuk Amuno Congregation, 8100 Stevenson Rd., Baltimore, Maryland 21208, or the UCSF Foundation, P.O. BOX 45339, San Francisco, California 94145.