Arthur “Art” Richard Mathers
Arthur “Art” Richard Mathers, 89, of Prospect passed away at 2:46 p.m. Saturday at Butler Memorial Hospital.
He was a retired writer-editor.
Born May 19, 1927, in Butler, he was the youngest of nine children of the late George Wilson Mathers and the late Elvira Viola Wagner Mathers. He grew up in the McCalmont Road area and was a graduate of the former Penn Township High School, where he lettered in baseball. He graduated in 1951 from the Armed Forces Information School at Ft. Slocum, N.Y.
Mr. Mathers was a member of the Portersville Bible Church, where he chaired the missionary prayer program. He was a former member of Butler's First Baptist Church, where he had belonged to the Berean Sunday school class, introduced visiting speakers, directed the church's nursing home ministry at the Sunnyview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center for more than a decade, served three terms on the church mission board and prepared missionary prayer requests for the Wednesday evening praise and prayer bulletins.
He held a bachelor's degree of journalism from the University of Missouri, Columbia, Mo., from which he graduated with distinction in 1958. He was elected to Kappa Tau Alpha, the honorary scholastic journalism fraternity.
In 1957, he was awarded the $300 first prize in the annual Sam Bronstein Awards for outstanding news feature articles by students in the university's school of journalism. He also took first place in the sports division of that year's Sigma Delta Chi prizes for outstanding stories in the daily newspaper, the Columbia Missourian, produced by the school.
Mr. Mathers' newspaper career included service as staff sportswriter for The Memphis Commercial Appeal and as sports editor of three daily newspapers, The Newton (Kansas) Daily Kansan, The Dixon (Ill.) Evening Telegraph and The West Lake County News-Herald, Willoughby, Ohio. He had also worked for The Canton (Ohio) Repository and the Mansfield (Ohio) News Journal.
Art completed 31 1/2 years of federal service in addition to his civilian career. He had served for almost eight years in two separate hitches as a U.S. Air Force enlisted man from 1950 to 1953 and from 1958 to 1962, where he reached the rank of staff sergeant. He also served 10 1/3 years as an Air Force civilian and 13 1/2 years as a Navy civilian. His final assignment was as the public affairs officer and editor for the Naval Facilities Engineering Command's Northern Division in the Philadelphia area.
Mr. Mathers was a staff sportswriter for 27 months from 1961 to 1963 with the European Edition of Stars and Stripes, in Darmstadt Germany. In 1962, he covered for Stars and Stripes the first American football game ever played in the 108,000-seat Berlin Olympic Stadium. It attracted an astoundingly large turnout of 65,000.
His other active military assignments had included sports editorship of the U.K. Eagle, command-level newspaper of the Third Air Force, South Ruislip, England, and sports editor positions with Air Force newspapers at Mather AFB, Calif., Clark AB, Philippines, Lockbourne AFB, Ohio and RAF Station Lakenheath, England.
He was assigned from 1971 to 1981 as the civilian editor of The AFSC Newsreview, command-level newspaper of Air Force Systems Command, produced at Andrews AFB, Md. During his editorship, The Newsreview was awarded the Air Force Association Citation of Honor and took six firsts, two thirds and an honorable mention in its category of the annual nationwide Blue Pencil Awards of the National Association of Government Communicators, presented at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
During Mathers' tenure, The Newsreview also posted two firsts, two seconds, and two thirds in its category of the yearly USAF worldwide media competition.
Mr. Mathers received a 1987 Journalist of the Year honorable mention in the Navy's annual Chief of Information (Chinfo) Merit Awards.
Art also had several in editorial posts with three religious publishing organizations as an editor for Union Gospel Press in Cleveland, editorial assistant for The Sunday School Times in Philadelphia and editor of a Christian newspaper produced at Lakemont, N.Y. He had written two sports-oriented gospel tracts for the American Tract Society.
Before his military career, Mr. Mathers had played baseball in the Butler County, Junior County, Eagle County and Butler County Church leagues; he competed for Penn Township, Little Cubs, West End Broncos, Unionville, Meridian and the Butler Merchants. In later years 1967 to 70, he managed and played for two championship teams in the Community Church Softball League, Delaware County, where he served as league president for two seasons. He later managed and played for a championship church softball league team in Bowie, Md.
Surviving are his son, Mark Richard Mathers, Bellmawr, N.J.; 18 nephews and nieces; and a number of grandnephews and grandnieces.
Art was preceded in death by his wife of 40 years, Ethel Elaine Butler Mathers, who he married July 10, 1965, at Butler's North Main Street Alliance Church, and who died July 27, 2005; one stillborn daughter, Rebecca Joy; five brothers, John, Earl, George, Larry and Joseph; and three sisters, Audine, Edrie Louise and Esther.
MATHERS — Friends of Arthur “Art” Richard Mathers, who died Saturday, Aug. 13, 2016, will be received from 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. Friday at the Thompson-Miller Funeral Home, 124 E. North St., Butler.Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at the funeral home with the Rev. David Maitland, pastor of First Baptist Church, and the Rev. Mike Charles of Portersville Bible Church officiating.Burial will take place at the Rose Hill Cemetery.Online condolences can be given at www.thompson-miller.com.
