It is a rare thing to lose two family members in such a short time, but it has happened.
My personal knowledge of Luther is small as he lived in another state from me and I saw him rarely. What I do know is that he was a high school teacher and married one of his students, Marcia Ruth Matthis, the youngest child of Marcella Freudenburg and Chester Blain Matthis. Lute, as he was called, came to our family reunions at least once when we all met at Pine Mountain State Park near Corbin, Ky. He and Marcia had two children, Hannah Josephine and Chester Earl. I remember them as quiet, beautiful children among us.
At the time of his death they lived in Pikeville, Kentucky and he lived to see Hannah become a mother.
Hannah had lost her husband a year ago and several years ago an uncle, Charles Blain Matthis. A lot of losses of the men in her life, in a short time.
In all of her loss, Hannah has her mother and extended family members to give her support. She has the support of her church also. May those blessings sustain her now. We all wish her well.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Charles Wesley Matthis V 1932-2012
For most of my life I did not know any of my cousins. But now I do and it all came about because my brother became interested in Genealogy. He lived in Abingdon, Va., a well known historical town. He joined the Historical Society and became an active participant in the activities of that group. He went back to college to learn German so that he could read old documents that could contain information about his ancestors. His search took him to Germany on more than one trip. He began to find cousins even in Germany. He learned about cousins here in the states and thus his adventures enriched the lives of us all in our family.
This brings me to today and news that one of those cousins will no longer be among us. This man who overcame many adversities in life became educated in space, and worked on the ground to monitor space craft while it was circling the earth. He was a quiet, caring man, who married late in life to a lady who had children. He embraced her family as his own and during his later years lived a quiet life in northern Arkansas.
To list his achievements in life would take a lot of space. His sister, Barbara Todd wrote about him in the 1990's and an interesting life it was. My sincere thanks to Barbara for the following facts:
His first obstacle began early on. He was less than two pounds at birth and given little hope of living. He was one of the first babies to be put in an incubator. The year was 1932. Many of those early babies ended up blind because of receiving too much oxygen while in those first incubators.
His health was delicate and until age five he was kept at home and away from any opportunity to be exposed to early childhood diseases.
When he was twelve he was so responsible that he was the baby sitter for his two younger siblings while their parents worked at Curtis Wright making airplanes.
At age 12 he began printing at their church. He ran an old fashioned press with tiny individual letter type. He later bought this machine and started his own printing business at home making cards announcing births, weddings, stationery and advertising flyers.
One of his many interests was with the short wave radio. He learned Morris Code and also about sending and receiving voice messages. This interest grew out of his activities in the Boy Scouts. With his fathers help he built a radio station in their upstairs. As his parents both worked in the Boy
Scouts he went on a truck trip to the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, and Rapid City to see Mount Rushmore at age twelve.
He made friends all over the world by way of the short wave radio and exchanged call number cards with them. His call name was W4 NWQ.
He learned to play the piano in with all of his other activities.
At age eighteen he joined the Louisville Cadet Squadron of Civil Air Patrol at Bowman Field in Louisville.
He learned to fly a plane at Kentucky Flying Service at Bowman Field . He soloed and received his private license. He went on searches with the CAP to look for small and downed aircraft.
When he graduated from high school he attended the University of Louisville, joining the ROTC and majored in Physics, did research on cancer radiation with a doctor at St. Joseph's hospital in Louisville. He and Dr. Love co-authored the results of their research and it was published in the American Medical Journal.
After graduation from college he did six weeks of basic training for the Air Force. After fulfilling all the requirements he failed the physical and was not accepted into the Air Force.
He spent a year pursuing a top security job in Washington, D.C. but it was not offered.
One of the doctors he worked with suggested he go to Medical school but after a year of waiting was told he needed pre med courses. Undaunted he applied for an engineering position for Boeing Aircraft in Wichita, Kansas. He was hired and spent thirty six years as a devoted employee to Boeing in Kansas and Huntsville, Alabama..
His earliest responsibility was in antennae and radon research on the B52.
His first big achievement was to develop and install the fleet Location and Information Reporting System for the city of St. Louis. For a year he worked with the Police Department with this system which tracked police cars around the city so that they could be quickly dispatched where needed. This was the first time this was done in any Police Department and now it is common place. He did a lot of traveling around the country and internationally in connection with the sale of this tracking system.
In 1981 he moved to Huntsville and was a configuration management engineer for the Test Equipment Division, ensuring compatible operation between equipment built for the US Navy and Air Force.
In the late 1980's he was assigned to the simulator programs and was responsible for software configuration control for the B1B simulator and the KC 135 simulators. There were several of them around the world and Chuck kept them all up and running.
His last assignment with Boeing before retirement was with the Space Station program, which developed and launched the Space Station.
Even in retirement he was called in from time to time on every program in Huntsville, as his experience with their systems was invaluable.
In his personal life he met and married Virginia Hedrick in 1974 while in Wichita, Kansas. He got the ready made family he had always wanted. In his retirement years he enjoyed his three children and eight grandchildren and seven great grandchildren. He was known to them as Papa Chuck.
After the death of his soul mate he found great things to do as a volunteer computer worker for Hospice.
He led a full and remarkable life and we are all honored to have him in our family.
This brings me to today and news that one of those cousins will no longer be among us. This man who overcame many adversities in life became educated in space, and worked on the ground to monitor space craft while it was circling the earth. He was a quiet, caring man, who married late in life to a lady who had children. He embraced her family as his own and during his later years lived a quiet life in northern Arkansas.
To list his achievements in life would take a lot of space. His sister, Barbara Todd wrote about him in the 1990's and an interesting life it was. My sincere thanks to Barbara for the following facts:
His first obstacle began early on. He was less than two pounds at birth and given little hope of living. He was one of the first babies to be put in an incubator. The year was 1932. Many of those early babies ended up blind because of receiving too much oxygen while in those first incubators.
His health was delicate and until age five he was kept at home and away from any opportunity to be exposed to early childhood diseases.
When he was twelve he was so responsible that he was the baby sitter for his two younger siblings while their parents worked at Curtis Wright making airplanes.
At age 12 he began printing at their church. He ran an old fashioned press with tiny individual letter type. He later bought this machine and started his own printing business at home making cards announcing births, weddings, stationery and advertising flyers.
One of his many interests was with the short wave radio. He learned Morris Code and also about sending and receiving voice messages. This interest grew out of his activities in the Boy Scouts. With his fathers help he built a radio station in their upstairs. As his parents both worked in the Boy
Scouts he went on a truck trip to the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, and Rapid City to see Mount Rushmore at age twelve.
He made friends all over the world by way of the short wave radio and exchanged call number cards with them. His call name was W4 NWQ.
He learned to play the piano in with all of his other activities.
At age eighteen he joined the Louisville Cadet Squadron of Civil Air Patrol at Bowman Field in Louisville.
He learned to fly a plane at Kentucky Flying Service at Bowman Field . He soloed and received his private license. He went on searches with the CAP to look for small and downed aircraft.
When he graduated from high school he attended the University of Louisville, joining the ROTC and majored in Physics, did research on cancer radiation with a doctor at St. Joseph's hospital in Louisville. He and Dr. Love co-authored the results of their research and it was published in the American Medical Journal.
After graduation from college he did six weeks of basic training for the Air Force. After fulfilling all the requirements he failed the physical and was not accepted into the Air Force.
He spent a year pursuing a top security job in Washington, D.C. but it was not offered.
One of the doctors he worked with suggested he go to Medical school but after a year of waiting was told he needed pre med courses. Undaunted he applied for an engineering position for Boeing Aircraft in Wichita, Kansas. He was hired and spent thirty six years as a devoted employee to Boeing in Kansas and Huntsville, Alabama..
His earliest responsibility was in antennae and radon research on the B52.
His first big achievement was to develop and install the fleet Location and Information Reporting System for the city of St. Louis. For a year he worked with the Police Department with this system which tracked police cars around the city so that they could be quickly dispatched where needed. This was the first time this was done in any Police Department and now it is common place. He did a lot of traveling around the country and internationally in connection with the sale of this tracking system.
In 1981 he moved to Huntsville and was a configuration management engineer for the Test Equipment Division, ensuring compatible operation between equipment built for the US Navy and Air Force.
In the late 1980's he was assigned to the simulator programs and was responsible for software configuration control for the B1B simulator and the KC 135 simulators. There were several of them around the world and Chuck kept them all up and running.
His last assignment with Boeing before retirement was with the Space Station program, which developed and launched the Space Station.
Even in retirement he was called in from time to time on every program in Huntsville, as his experience with their systems was invaluable.
In his personal life he met and married Virginia Hedrick in 1974 while in Wichita, Kansas. He got the ready made family he had always wanted. In his retirement years he enjoyed his three children and eight grandchildren and seven great grandchildren. He was known to them as Papa Chuck.
After the death of his soul mate he found great things to do as a volunteer computer worker for Hospice.
He led a full and remarkable life and we are all honored to have him in our family.
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