Servant Leader: Gene Matthis. RIP

by Jack White, President, Kiwanis Club of Abingdon VA

"Servant Leader" is a term I hear bandied around a lot in Kiwanis, and elsewhere.

The Kiwanis Club of Abingdon just lost a true servant leader. I want to tell you about him, because his life was what our organization should be about.

Gene Matthis (right) was born in a small rough-and-tumble coal town in eastern Kentucky once known as "Bloody Harlan". The youngest of eight children, he was educated in mining engineering at the University of Kentucky, then went to work in that industry.

I first met Gene when he was named President of Pittston Coal - then Virginia's largest - and moved to our Southwest Virginia town. Most of our children were off in school, my wife and I were ready to downsize, and Gene and his wife bought our home.

When Gene retired from Pittston after a decade of successful leadership in that vital but difficult industry, he joined our Kiwanis Club. That is when I really got to know him and he soon became one of our most faithful and energetic members.

I am writing this because Gene died April 11, at age 81, of a stroke, and the full nature of his life and passions are being publicly disclosed for the first time.

Let's begin with his retirement party at Pittston. A story in our local newspaper quotes a plaque that his co-workers gave to him:

"Your feet and eyes danced to the music of the joy of living."

The obituary his family wrote told of his rise through the ranks of leadership in the coal industry and his worldwide travels as head of a major company. Then it said:

"It was in his retirement, however, that he found his true vocation of service."

What type of service?

In our club, Gene never sought a leadership position. He just wanted to work. And so he did, joyfully, whenever the occasion arose. He seldom missed a project or fund-raiser and was right there on the front lines. His smile and the twinkle in his eyes became fixtures.

For six years, he headed our Interclub program and was a wonderful ambassador from our club to the other Kiwanis Clubs in Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee. When a vacancy occurred on our Board of Directors and he was asked to serve, he did so without hesitation. But he stepped aside just as quickly when the next election came.

What else?

- He was called a Renaissance Man because of his sharp and inquisitive mind and his constant quest for knowledge. After he retired, he told people he always wanted to know German so he could read the literature, so he enrolled in German courses at a nearby college. (My youngest daughter was in one of his classes and they struck up a close friendship.)

- The library manager of our Historical Society remembered that Gene volunteered almost every Thursday for eight or nine years, helping people research its archives - and accenting his Southern drawl for the benefit of those from out of town.

- He was an avid fan of the nearby rookie-league Bristol White Sox and seldom missed a game, proudly sitting with friends in $4 seats behind home plate and cheering like the fan he was. (He took my grandson to one of those games and the boy remembers that evening fondly.)

-- He was a faithful member and leader of Sinking Spring Presbyterian Church and was known for the tours he gave of the church's historic cemetery. He also was a master woodworker and, in his home shop, crafted the huge wooden cross that now hangs above the church's chancel.

Gene's love for service was on full display at his last weekly meeting of our club. I was on my feet, reminding the members about our Kiwanis One Service Project that Saturday, when Gene stood up and said: "I will be there. They need some carpentry work done and I am going to do it. You come, too"

His tragic stroke occurred two days later and that work remains undone.

But there he was, an 81-year-old man, a former captain of industry, still looking forward with great enthusiasm to doing carpentry work for an old dwelling that now houses a children's agency.

Such people are called Servant Leaders. Gene was in the front ranks of them. His high school sweetheart and wife of 58 years, Jane Matthis, told the Bristol newspaper:

"He was interested in everything. ... He got up every day and said, 'Who can I help today?'. He was just a good man. He was the best."