When it came to the affairs of the community college he almost single handily created, Dowagiac’s Fred Mathews was not one to mince words.

In the late 1990s, when the issue of binding arbitration between community college boards and faculty was lighting up across Michigan, the then chairman of Southwestern Michigan College assembled together local lawmakers to warn them of the potential legislation. In a 20-minute speech, Mathews outlined in great detail how a bill mandating binding arbitration would be presented in Lansing, down to the exact wording the legislation would use to “camouflage” its true intent.

At the time, Mathews’ screed was largely ignored by the legislators in the audience, with one practically dismissing the chairman’s comments entirely, recalled Thomas Jerdon, the current SMC chairman who served with Mathews on the college board for decades.

However, everything the Dowagiac man had predicted came to pass, with the college leader teaming up with the same lawmakers he had warned months earlier to narrowly defeat the legislation, Jerdon said.

“He [Mathews] wasn’t just 99 percent correct — he was 100 percent dead on accurate, and they were zero percent correct,” he said.

Left with pie on their faces, when the same legislators returned to the college the following year, they were expecting to hear a big “I told you so” from Mathews when he took the podium to open the event.

In this case, the lawmakers were 100 percent right in their estimations.

“Welcome to the second annual conference on binding arbitration,” Mathews said, causing the entire audience to erupt in laughter and applause.

That combination of political savvy, sense of humor and, above else, a dogged determination to see his visions into reality no matter the obstacles before him, is what allowed Mathews to accomplish countless deeds throughout his life — deeds that have molded Dowagiac into the community it is today.

The many people who Mathews touched through his nearly 60 years of service to the people of Dowagiac are now in mourning, as the life of the beloved pillar of the community came to end earlier this week.

Mathews died Sunday at Lakeland Regional Medical Center in St. Joseph. He was 87 years old.

Arriving in the Grand Old City

Mathews was born March 28, 1929, in Johannesburg, a small village located in northern Michigan. Brought up during the Great Depression, Mathews grew up in a home without indoor plumbing, running electricity or central heating.

At 17, Mathews dropped out of high school in order to enlist in the U.S. Army, wanting to use the scholarship dollars from the G.I. Bill to get a college education to lift himself out of poverty.

After his discharge from the army, Mathews enrolled in classes at Central Michigan University, where he studied for several years before attending the Southern College of Optometry in Memphis.

The path to earning his degree in optometry was not easy, though.

First, Mathews had to convince one of his professors at Central to change one of his grades from a “C+” to a “B-” in order to have a high enough GPA to enroll in optometry school. Once he was admitted into the southern school, he was informed via telegram that he would have to wait to attend school, as classes were full — prompting Mathews to drive down to Memphis and spend the next three days pleading his case to the registrar, before he was finally allowed to attend.

His tenacity to earn his education set the stage for his work to come.

“Once he was all in on a problem, he wouldn’t rest until it was resolved,” Jerdon said. “The higher the hurdles in front on him, the more he liked it. He never backed down from a challenge.”

Following graduation, Mathews decided to move to Dowagiac to establish his optometry clinic, as the city was located near Three Rivers, where his brother resided. Mathews arrived in the Grand Old City on Feb. 1, 1952, with just $40 to his name.

A little more than a year later, Mathews married Lethelda “Thelda” Livingston in New Albany, Indiana. The two remained married until his death. They had two children together, David and Scott.

Countless people came to know Dr. Mathews over the years through his practice, including Jerdon, who started visiting for eye appointments when he was around 18 years old, he said. Appointments for Jerdon and others became more than just routine examinations, though, as Mathews would always ask questions about his patients and their futures — the doctor was particularly inquisitive about young people and where they were heading in life, Jerdon said.

“He would always give you solid advice — whether you wanted it or not,” Jerdon said.

Overcoming adversity

Mathews’ focus lied far beyond just the doors of his practice, though.

The optometrist was heavily invested in the community, and served on dozens of boards and service organizations, including the Lions and Rotary clubs and the Cass County Transportation Authority and Planning Commission. He also spearheaded multiple fundraising campaigns for the Lee Memorial Hospital, and helped raise money to create the high school running track.

Mathews also helped create the Community State Bank (now the Dowagiac Huntington Bank) in 1966, and served as the third president of the Greater Dowagiac Association, an organization that helped rebuild the city’s industry after one of the city’s largest employers at the time closed.

In the early 1960s, Mathews embarked on what would become his greatest journey — establishing a community college in Cass County.

Spurred on by the surge in development of two-year colleges across Michigan at the time, Mathews and several other like-minded individuals came together to campaign to establish a college in Dowagiac, hoping to grow the number of people who, like Mathews, could benefit from higher education, said David Mathews, who is currently president of SMC.

“He became obsessed with our community not getting left out or left behind,” David said. “He wanted local students to have the same educational opportunities that were only available outside the city.”

Just as he had done years earlier, Mathews would not accept “no” for an answer when it came to the establishment of the college. When one man’s study on the viability of a Cass County college found that the project would be economically unfeasible, Mathews dismissed him and hired another researcher, who delivered more favorable results.

In 1964, county voters approved a millage to establish a community college. Mathews became chairman of the college, leading the efforts to transform a humble cornfield on the outskirts of Dowagiac into a small campus for higher learning.

In 1966, Southwestern Michigan College opened its doors to students.

From that point forward, Mathews and the community college became inextricably linked.

“Whenever we would have relatives come over to our house, one of the first things he would do is pile everyone into the car and bring them out to college,” David said. “Even though there wasn’t a lot to see back then, he was very proud of the college.”

The struggles that Mathews and his fellow college leaders had to open SMC were just a precursor to the difficulties that followed, as the college struggled with issues with state funding, accreditation agencies and faculty labor unions. However, thanks in large part to Mathews’ laser focus, creativity, charm and — as always — his steely determination, the college overcame these obstacles.

Today, SMC is a thriving two-year institution, that features on-campus student living, and a plethora of different academic programs across two campuses in Dowagiac and Niles. In recent years, the college has made extensive renovations to its facilities, with leaders expecting to break ground on a $9.6 overhaul of its nursing building in May.

Mathews stepped down as chairman of the community college after serving in the position for 50 years, stepping down from the board of trustees in January 2015. His tenure is the longest that anyone has served on a community college board in the U.S.

Shortly before his retirement, Mathews published his account of the college’s story up to that point, in a book titled “Triumph Over Adversity — The Amazing History of Southwestern Michigan College.” The book remains on sale at the college today, with proceeds going toward student scholarships.

In spite of five decades of service to the college, stepping away from the job proved difficult for Mathews, who remained distant from the college shortly after his retirement in 2015, Jerdon said. However, he agreed to attend the college’s commencement ceremony in April, where he received a standing ovation from the audience.

Catching up with the retired chairman afterwards, Jerdon said he could tell that Mathews was comfortable passing the torch to Jerdon and the rest of the board.

“I think that was closure for him,” Jerdon said.

This was the first of a two-part story on the life and times of Fred Mathews. The second part will be published in Wednesday’s publication, featuring Mathews’ work to transform Dowagiac’s downtown in the 1990s.