As a youth, he participated in a number of sports, including baseball, billiards, boxing, and ping pong.
After briefly studying at Rutgers University, Maselli enlisted in the US Army at the start of World War II.
Maselli attained a degree in Commercial Science at Tulane University in 1950, completing his course of study in three years.
In the early 1970s, Maselli partnered with New Orleans Mayor Maurice Edwin “Moon” Landrieu in creating the Piazza d’Italia, a “people place” that has garnered many architectural awards and hosted numerous events.
He made a point of using the term “American-Italian” instead of the more common “Italian-American” to emphasize that, first and foremost, he and his fellow New Orleanians of Italian origin were Americans.
[3] He created the Italian-American Federation of the Southeast in the early 1970s, combining more than 30 civic groups under one umbrella organization.
[11] Maselli also served as an ethnic affairs advisor to U.S. Presidents Ford, Carter, Reagan, and Bush.
[14] Maselli met Antoinette Cammarata at a local USO club show on his first night in town upon being stationed at Camp Plauche in 1945.
Maselli’s son Frank has continued in his father’s activist footsteps as chairman of the AICC.