University of Waterloo Daily Bulletin, November 15, 2012
Lois Matthews, wife of the University of Waterloo's second president Burt Matthews, died on Saturday, November 10. A funeral service will be held in the chapel of the Erb & Good funeral home November 15 at 10:30 a.m.
She is pictured above with members of her family in 2005, when an ironwood tree was planted in memory of Burt Matthews, who served as president from 1970 to 1981, outside B.C. Matthews Hall. Also pictured are then-president David Johnston and former dean of applied health sciences Roger Mannell.
"My wife and I have very warm memories of time spent with Lois Matthews," writes Kenneth McLaughlin, Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the university's history department. "We came to Waterloo in 1970 just as Burt acceded to the Presidency. With so many new, young faculty members and their wives arriving that year, Mrs. Matthews opened their home to the faculty wives. For a week each September they met together to identify interest groups and affinities. We benefited from Lois Matthews' gracious hospitality as she came to know the wives of the faculty members and to share their interests. Lois and Burt made it a point to know as many of us as possible and to welcome us to their home."
Lois Matthews is also remembered for her keen interest in the work of the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences, or the Faculty of Human Kinetics and Leisure Studies, as it was known at the time. A reading room in B.C. Matthews Hall bears her name, and her family is accepting donations to the Lois Matthews Scholarship Fund in lieu of flowers. Donations can be made via the University's development office's online giving form.
McLaughlin recalls that at the height of the radical student protest era (and yes, this institution had its share of radicals), when students engaged in a "sit in" at the president's residence on Westgate Walk in Kitchener, Mrs. Matthews served them food and beverages.
"All these years later the memories of her warmth and generosity remain strong and steadfast," writes McLaughlin. "We will all miss her."