‘With fond memories’: Senior Penn administrator offered to buy Jeffrey Epstein coffee in 2012 email

Penn Senior Vice President David Asch previously stated that he had not contacted Jeffrey Epstein — his former high school teacher — in “nearly 50 years” after an email exchange surfaced between an old classmate and Epstein that referenced Asch last month. But newly released documents show that Asch reached out to the convicted sex offender with a friendly email in 2012, offering to buy him coffee.

In the September 2012 email exchange, Asch wrote in a message to Epstein that he’d be “happy to buy” Epstein “a cup of coffee in NY,” adding that he hoped the Manhattan financier would “remember” him. Days later, Epstein wrote back that he’d “love” to catch up with Asch.

The exchange appears in the thousands of Epstein-estate documents released by the Department of Justice on Friday. 

Asch messaged Epstein four years after he was sentenced to an 18-month jail sentence after pleading guilty to charges of solicitation of prostitution and solicitation prostitution from a minor.

Asch has not been accused of any involvement in Epstein’s crimes or wrongdoing.

“I hope this email reaches you. I also hope you remember me from Dalton so many years ago where, as I remember it, I did a substantial amount of your calculus teaching for you,” Asch wrote. “It’s been more than 35 years since I’ve seen you.”

Four days later, Asch received a response from Epstein’s estate that said that the financier would “love to catch up.” 

“Sounds great!” Asch replied a day later. “I will find a time to call. But let me know if there is a good time. Otherwise, I’ll just try when I can.” 

“I sent that note before knowing what we all know now. Along the way I learned how despicable he was, and so I did not have a call with him or meet with him,” Asch wrote in a statement. “I am deeply saddened by the profound harm he caused his many victims.”

The Daily Pennsylvanian previously reported a 2015 email exchange between New York University adjunct professor James Rosenwald III and Epstein, where Rosenwald III wrote that he and Asch had “toasted” to Epstein months before while celebrating Thanksgiving in the Hamptons.

“Epstein was my high school physics teacher. The last time I had contact with him was nearly 50 years ago,” Asch wrote in a statement to the DP at the time.

Asch and Rosenwald attended the Dalton School, a Manhattan private school where Epstein taught physics and math from 1974 to 1976.

A request for comment was left with a University spokesperson. 

In September 2025, Penn President Larry Jameson announced “Penn Forward,” a new campuswide strategic framework spearheaded in part by Asch. Jameson also charged Asch with coordinating “In Principle and Practice,” the University’s earlier initiative on which “Penn Forward” expands.

Asch served as the Director of Penn’s Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics between 1998 to 2012. In his email to Epstein, Asch described his work over the “past 15 years or so,” adding that he oversaw “about 200 faculty” at the University. He also sent Epstein a link to LDI’s website and his personal online profile at the Wharton School.

“After Dalton I went to Harvard, then medical school at Cornell, then to the University of Pennsylvania for my residency and fellowship in internal medicine, where I also got an MBA from Wharton,” Asch wrote to Epstein as he recounted his professional achievements. “I joined the faculty at Penn after that in both the School of Medicine and at Wharton, and I’ve been there for more than 25 years.” 

Epstein previously donated major sums of money to multiple universities across the country, including Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

“With fond memories,” Asch signed off his email.

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