John Mathews

1935 - 2023

John Mathews

Woodstock, VT - John Francis Mathews III passed away peacefully on September 3, 2023 at Mertens House in Woodstock, Vermont. A true seeker of knowledge, a newsman for life, and a true lover of many things among them baseball, travel, gourmet vegetarian dishes, reading, birds, clouds, his many friends, and his children and grandchildren. John Mathews was born eighty-eight years ago (1935) in Westbury, New York on Long Island as John Francis Matuszewski. John's father changed the family name to Mathews with one T before John and his older sister Micheline began elementary school, hoping to relieve the burden of a difficult to spell and pronounce name [which also identified them as Polish]. With a mother who immigrated from Angers, France in her late teens, John's first language was French. He spent his early years living on the west side of Manhattan, attending kindergarten at Riverside Church (where his grandchildren would attend some sixty-five years later) and grade school at the progressive Corpus Christi School. He even served as an altar boy at one point.

John's family life changed markedly at age ten when his father died suddenly. In subsequent years, the family moved to Boston and its environs to live with his extended French family. John always remembered his childhood summers spent in Beverly and Walpole, MA with great fondness. He attended boarding school and graduated from St. John's Prep in Danvers, Mass. winning a scholarship to attend Columbia College in New York City. At Columbia, while working in the dining hall, he met a Barnard student, Roberta Isaacs, whom he would skip his graduation to marry in June 1957.

John and Roberta moved to Hartford, Connecticut for John's first newspaper job at The Hartford Times from 1957 to 1961. Obtaining this job was facilitated by Roberta's father, Norman Isaacs, who was an established newspaper editor at the Louisville Courier Journal. After a few years in Hartford, John and Roberta traveled abroad to spend a year in France. Based in Paris, John worked for Agence Presse France before returning to serve in the U.S. Army reserves at Fort Benning, Georgia. Following his service, they moved back north to Providence, Rhode Island, where John worked the education beat at The Providence Journal and Evening Bulletin from 1962-1964.

In October 1964, John and Roberta moved to Washington, D.C. where John joined the staff of The Washington Star newspaper. John specialized in reporting on various social issues, primarily education, but also including civil rights, youth, and race issues. He covered stories about busing and the anti-war movement locally and nationally. During these years, he also wrote education-related articles that appeared in The New Republic, The Nation, and The New York Times Magazine.

During this time, John and Roberta had two children: Suzanne Elise and John Paul. They separated in 1972 and later divorced. In 1980, John married Patsy Frank and they settled first in northwest Washington, D.C. and then in Cabin John, Maryland, close to the C & O Canal.

From 1976 to 1981, John served as an assistant managing editor for local news at The Washington Star, in charge of Maryland coverage. In 1981 when The Star sadly closed permanently, John moved to local television news, joining the staff of WRC-TV, the local NBC station. At WRC, he worked as a producer for several years before moving to become a producer for NBC News Channel from 1991-1998. There, he and his team covered the "Washington-story-of the day" and prepared stories for the affiliate stations around the country. John loved covering the political conventions as well as various presidential terms, Congressional hearings, and many other events happening in and connected with unique DC goings on. Upon retiring from NBC in 1998, John volunteered at the International Center for Journalists' national office in downtown Washington, D.C. and wrote occasional pieces for The Washington Post.

During their forty-five year marriage, John & Patsy traveled widely throughout Europe including Scandinavia and Russia and even ventured to Asia on trips to Japan and China. John and Patsy were committed pescatarians from the mid-1980s and enjoyed sampling gourmet meals at home and in whatever city they visited. They also became exercise enthusiasts, jogging on the C & O Canal or through various scenic locations on their travels. They both added swimming in their later years and alternated days of jogging with swimming for their exercise pursuits. They rarely missed a day of exercise up until their last years.

In 2003, John and Patsy moved full-time to Woodstock, Vermont. There, they quickly immersed themselves in the local community and became active in many local organizations and causes. John set a record for delivering the largest number of meals for Meals on Wheels in his fifteen years as a driver. He volunteered to read with reluctant readers with an organization called Everybody Wins Vermont! at the White River School and he also served for several years as a Guardian Ad Litem to ensure that the child's interests were upheld in court proceedings. No slouch himself, John was also constantly advancing his own knowledge by taking a variety of courses on law, literature, and history with OSHER Lifelong Learning Institute at Dartmouth College as well as the Woodstock continuing education group, Learning Lab. For ten years, John organized a book club focused on reading classics of American literature at the Norman Williams Library in Woodstock. For many summers, he helped organize and publicize the annual local author festival known as Bookstock.

John was a lifelong baseball fan. As a youth, he followed the New York Giants and then became a fan of the Baltimore Orioles while living in Washington, D.C. and later of the Boston Red Sox when he relocated to Vermont. He was also an opera lover and classical music aficionado, having been introduced from a young age by his uncle who was a classical pianist. He loved attending opera performances at the Met in New York City and at the HOP at Dartmouth for their simulcasts. Patsy and John were also enthusiastic standard poodle owners, owning four different poodles in succession over many years. One of their poodles, Chloe, accompanied them on a trip to southern France in 1998. Their last poodle, Louis, is still a Woodstock resident having been happily adopted by his former dogwalker.

Patsy died in January 2018 after a five-year struggle with lung cancer. In September 2022, John was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer. His health deteriorated over the months, and he moved to rehab and later full-time nursing care in Woodstock at Mertens House where he died peacefully on September 3, 2023.

John Mathews leaves behind his daughter Suzanne Elise of Roslindale, Massachusetts and his son, John Paul of McLean, Virginia. In addition, John leaves his much beloved daughter-in-law Linda and grandchildren Anna and Alexander. He also is survived by his nephew John Doguereau Roth of Wellesley, Massachusetts and his cousin Nadine Revene of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. A memorial service will be held on November 11th at 1:00pm at the North Universalist Chapel Society in Woodstock. Donations are welcome in John's memory to any of the many local organizations he supported, including but not limited to the Thompson Senior Center, the Norman Williams Library, the Pentangle Arts Council, and Sustainable Woodstock.