Thomas Edwin MATTHEWS

1919 - 2020

THOMAS EDWIN MATTHEWS It is with profound sadness that our family announces the peaceful passing of Thomas (Tom) Edwin Matthews on October 1, 2020, in Kanata, Ontario. Born May 8, 1919, in Québec City, Tom was a husband, father, grandfather, great grandfather, artist, teacher, builder, traveller, sailor, reader and history buff. He was predeceased by his parents Reginald Ervin Matthews and Frances Rose (née Philpott); siblings Evelyn Lascelles (Jack deceased); his wife Margaret Joan Matthews (née Abbott) and wife Jessie Henrietta MacKay (née Young). Tom is survived by his loving companion Joanne Peterson; his sons Brian (Jeannine), Charles (Kathy), and Andrew; his sister Betty Webber (late Ross); and brother Edward (Ted) Alfred (Shirley Hodgson; Jackie Townson deceased); his grandchildren Keiko (BeeJay), Miori, and John, great grandchildren Blake and Dylan, Joanne's daughter Lorraine Jaffray (Bruce) and son David Peterson, and cousins, nieces and nephews. As a teenager, his interest in painting and design was nurtured by teachers such as Ethel Curry, the renowned Haliburton artist and landscape painter, at Northern Tech in Toronto, and Arthur Lismer, of the Group of Seven, at Lismer's weekend classes. Prior to the American entry into WW2, he worked and studied industrial design with Raymond Loewy in Chicago before joining the Canadian Army in 1942 as a sapper (Royal Canadian Engineers), eventually being shipped to England in the spring of 1945 as a "replacement" lieutenant (infantry). His wartime sketches and paintings now located in the Canadian War Museum may be seen at: www.warmuseum.ca/collections/search-results/?q=Thomas+Matthews&page_num=1 Demobilized in 1946, he returned to Toronto and resumed his industrial design career and spare time 'plein air' painting. He worked for Design Craft until 1964 when he moved to Ottawa to supervise the designers of the Canadian pavilion at Expo 67 under Tom Wood, the noted Canadian war artist. He declined a number of employment offers in the United States, including one with Henry Dreyfuss, another American industrial designer. He won a Governor General's Award for Engineering and Design for a Seabreeze company fan. Retirement in 1984 gave him more time to paint. A studio in an old waterside warehouse in Gananoque kept him occupied during the summer painting, and during the winter, teaching watercolour painting in Fort Myers. He displayed his works in art shows in both locations. Some of his paintings may be found at the Royal Military College of Canada and the Canadian Coast Guard station, both in Kingston, and in private collections in Canada and the United States. Other paintings he displayed at shows in both countries and he earned some retirement money doing commissioned watercolour paintings of individual sailing craft. Travels included jumping freight trains from Toronto to Sudbury as a teenager, working passage to England on a cattle boat before the war, vacations with his young family by car to New Mexico, Florida, Cuba (prior to Fidel Castro), British Columbia and Maine. With Jessie, and later with Joanne, travels included at least one cruise or international trip per year to destinations including the Carribean, Central America, Florida, Arizona, Portugal, New Zealand and Australia (cousin Laurie Philpott). He built the family home in Kleinburg almost single-handedly and a cottage on Go Home Lake with the help of his two boys. His interest in boating started with building a sailboard in the boys' bedroom in Kleinburg and continued in Ottawa with a dinghy in the local high school shop. Sail boat ownership started in Ottawa with 'Aloha' followed by 'Tossie'. Retirement saw the sailboat replaced by a 35-foot trawler, 'Tossie Too', with which he and Jessie motored the Intercoastal Waterway to Florida, eventually replacing it with condos in both Fort Myers and Gananoque. As Jessie's health deteriorated they moved to an apartment in Kingston, Ontario, and upon her death Tom moved to Kanata. His last 18 years were spent with Joanne and together they moved from an apartment to a house and from a house to a retirement home. Tom requested that no funeral service be held for him, that he be cremated and that his ashes be laid to rest beside his father, mother and grandfather in the family plot. After COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted, burial will take place in Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto and celebrations of his life will take place in Toronto and Edmonton. The family wishes to express our gratitude to Dr. Christine Billie, along with Bonnie Lacroix and her entire staff and volunteers at The Courtyards on Eagleson, for providing the incredible support which both Tom and Joanne received during Tom's final illness.