A leading voice in the U.S. actuarial community, his exemplary career included longtime service as an Academy volunteer.
By Michael G. Malloy
Stephen Goss, chief actuary of the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the 2013 recipient of the Academy’s Robert J. Myers Public Service Award, retired in early January after more than 50 years of public service. Goss has been an active volunteer with the Academy’s Social Security Committee, and a featured speaker at countless actuarial events, including last October’s Envision Tomorrow retirement session on Social Security, which aired nationally on C-SPAN.
“We wish our chief actuary, Stephen Goss, all the best in his retirement after 51 years of outstanding public service,” Acting SSA Commissioner Carolyn Colvin said in a statement posted online. [His] “expertise, leadership, and integrity helped our nation’s leaders understand and navigate myriad complex Social Security issues, benefiting millions of Americans along the way.”
The Academy established the Robert J. Myers Public Service Award in 1994, which is named after Myers, SSA’s chief actuary from 1947 to 1970, to honor his lifelong commitment to public service. Myers was instrumental in the design and funding of the Social Security system and was described by former Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan as “a national treasure.”
In presenting the 2013 award, then-Academy President Cecil Bykerk said Goss’s “colleagues have praised his work with the Social Security Administration and recognized his tireless efforts to provide impartial, non-partisan advice to its commissioners, boards of trustees, other executive branch officials, and Congress. He is regarded as a thought leader and mentor who has dedicated many years to the common good and public service on behalf of the actuarial profession.”
Goss served as SSA’s chief actuary from 2001 to 2025. Noting that he began at SSA in 1973—just three years after Myers left—he said in his acceptance video that “I can really only accept this award on behalf of the entire office and the legacy that Bob Myers left us. We live and breathe every day the great legacy, the great work, his thinking … [and] the way he developed projections.” From Myers and other SSA actuaries who followed, “we carry that legacy doing the best we can for the actuarial profession and the American people.”
In a January interview shortly following his retirement from SSA, Goss said one of the positive aspects of last year’s Envision Tomorrow session was having panelists with a range of priorities, perspectives, and backgrounds, including representatives from the AARP Public Policy Institute, the Bipartisan Policy Center, and the Sexuality and Gender Alliance of Actuaries.
“Getting views from others involved is very important,” he said. “Actuaries in the public sphere are sort of like umpires at a baseball game, calling balls and strikes. Their incredibly important role is to provide objective—and understandable—analysis of the [Social Security] program, and the implications of any and all changes that are being considered for the future.”
The Academy and the actuarial profession “have a very strong role in trying to get objective truth, reality, and understanding” of Social Security and other public policy issues, Goss added. “The Academy does not do advocacy, but it advocates objective knowledge and understanding” in those discussions, he said.
“My interactions with Steve were always positive,” said Ted Goldman, the Academy’s senior pension fellow from 2017 to 2019, who retired late last year as director of policy, research, and analysis for the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.
The Academy releases issue briefs following release of the annual Social Security Trustees Report, and Goss “was very knowledgeable about Social Security and generous with his time when I was in my Academy role,” Goldman said. “Both he and Karen Glenn regularly attended our planning meetings, and I never recall them saying ‘no,’ or not contributing to the greater good.”
Glenn, who was deputy chief actuary under Goss, succeeded him as SSA’s chief actuary in January. The two co-presented in an Academy webinar last May outlining highlights of the trustees’ report. Over the years, Goss has served as a member of the Academy’s Social Security Committee and participated in many Academy Retirement Practice Council (formerly Pension Practice Council) events, including a 2018 retirement policy discussion forum, Capitol Forum webinars, and other webinars on Social Security.
“Steve was professional and very clear—and a great communicator, too,” Goldman said. “He had a nice, friendly way about him, too. On the lighter side, he always had chocolate bars with him and was a big hugger, too—when he saw you he’d give you a big hug.”
Frank Todisco, also a former Academy senior pension fellow, added, “When I joined the Academy in 2008 as senior pension fellow, Steve’s expertise, and generosity in sharing it, were invaluable to me in my duties representing the Academy on Social Security issues.” Todisco, who also received the Robert F. Myers Award, in 2023, and is currently chief actuary with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), but was speaking in a personal capacity, concluded, “I congratulate Steve on an exemplary career of public service.”
Michael G. Malloy is managing editor for member content at the Academy.