József Macho, a Roman Catholic priest, was born on February 17, 1928, in the city of Passaic. He attended Garfield Public School and then Pope Pius XII High School. He graduated from Seton Hall University in 1949 and subsequently enrolled at the Immaculate Conception Seminary in Darlington.

He was ordained a priest on May 30, 1953, at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart, where Archbishop Thomas Aloysius Boland of Newark ordained him for service in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark. He received his first assignment at St. Paul the Apostle Church, where he served as an assistant pastor until October 1967.

In 1967, he joined the U.S. Navy Chaplain Corps. After graduating from the Naval Chaplain School in Newport, he served at numerous stations in the United States and overseas, including Charleston, aboard the USS Bennington, Orlando, Kodiak, Cape May, Okinawa, San Diego, the Subic Bay Naval Base in the Philippines, Mayport, Albany, and Naples. During his service, he collaborated with various units of the U.S. Navy, the Coast Guard, and the Marine Corps.

In 1977, he was selected for graduate studies, during which he earned a master’s degree in Pastoral Education. Throughout his military career, he received numerous awards, including the Meritorious Service Medal (awarded twice), the Vietnam Service Medal with a Bronze Star, and several Navy and Coast Guard service and unit awards.

In February 1990, he retired with the rank of Captain (US Navy). He subsequently remained in Europe, where he pursued studies at the Pontifical North American College in Rome. Upon his return, he served at Madonna Church and later became the administrator of Nativity Church.

In the later years of his life, he was a member of the Greenbriar Woodlands Association community for more than twenty-five years, while also providing part-time pastoral care to the congregation of St. Luke Roman Catholic Church.