The secret to Martin L. Mathews’ success is selflessness. His favorite quote: “What you do yourself dies with you, but what you do for others lives forever,” has actually been the story of his life.
After nearly 60 years of working with young people by way of the institution Mathews-Dickey Boys and Girls Club he co-founded with the late Hubert “Dickey” Ballentine, Mathews has become a beloved local treasure with a legacy that stretches the globe via the lives he enriched through the organization.
Even the release of his biography “I Trust You With My Life” is not about him.
The board of the Mathews-Dickey Boys and Girls club commissioned the creation of the book so that sales from the book can raise funds for the club’s endowment.
On Tuesday (August 15), Mathews will celebrate the book’s release with a signing, discussion and meet-and-greet at the Missouri Athletic Club.
Books will be available for purchase and “I Trust You With My Life” will be provided to all donors of $100 or more to the legacy fund.
“We spent many hours interviewing about his life and his progress in putting the boys club together and how it has helped thousands of children – both boys and girls,” said “I Trust You With My Life” author Richard Weiss.
The book’s foreword was written by Baseball Hall of Famer and former St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa.
Guests will hear how Mathews accepted the final wishes of a neighborhood coach who asked him to inherit a team of boys, which ultimately evolved into the organization that bears his name.
From a shade tree to serving the city’s youth
Mathews and Ballentine were under a shade tree in Tandy Park in the 1950s when they decided to start a Boys club for children in North City like the ones in South St. Louis.
Each coached their own crop of boys, but had to turn many others away because they had no resources or facilities to accommodate a larger group. They agreed to start the club, and went their separate ways.
“I kind of forgot about it,” Mathews said. “He called me late one night on the phone and said, ‘How about us naming it Mathews-Dickey?’ At one o’clock in the morning – when you have to be up for work – I didn’t care what it was named.”
Within five years, they had expanded from five to 75 teams. Mathews sold coffee for 10 cents a cup at his day job to fund the club.
“That was a lot of money – and that’s how we were able to survive,” Mathews said.
Community and corporate support stepped in. By 1982, the organization had undergone a multimillion-dollar expansion spearheaded by a partnership with Chuck Knight of Emerson and August Busch III of Anheuser-Busch. Mathews Dickey even received a visit from then President Ronald Reagan.
Mathews continued to carry the torch for the organization upon Ballentine’s passing in 2000 until his retirement three years ago at age 90.
At his star-studded retirement celebration in 2015, Mathews said that the club reached an estimated two million lives over the course of 55 years.
“St. Louis is a great city, and some of the greatest people in this country are here,” Mathews said. “We were able to do great things because of great people – and I can’t call any names, because I would be here all night. I just want to say that y’all are some of the greatest people in the world. Because there is no way that we could come from a shade tree to having one of the best facilities in the country.”
The book signing and release celebration for “I Trust You With My Life” will take place on Tuesday, August 15 from 4 p.m. – 6 p.m. at The Missouri Athletic Club, 405 Washington Ave.
For more information or to RSVP, visit http://mathews-dickey.com/event/biography-release/.
