Robert J. Matthews

Once upon a time I worked in the Religion Department at BYU. My boss there is an awesome ball of energy, who would sometimes assign tasks that were over my head, or refer to things I knew nothing about. Sometimes I asked questions, sometimes I didn’t.

One such occasion where he told me something and I didn’t ask questions was when he told me that Bob Matthews would be coming in later on to bring some papers.

I hadn’t a clue who Bob Matthews was, but he said it like I should, so I just said, great, and banked on the fact that whoever Bob Matthews was, he would identify himself once he got there.

And, sure enough, a tiny old man who seemed younger than he probably was walked in the door and said, Hi, I’m Brother Matthews. He was wearing a trench coat and carrying a briefcase, so I liked him immediately. He gave me the papers he’d brought in, asked me my name, chatted with me for just a minute, then left.

Later that day I mentioned to someone that Brother Matthews had dropped by, and one of my co-workers (who will undoubtedly be a great Mormon scholar someday) perked up and said, “Brother Matthews was here?” The way he said it made me curious. After all, we had religion professors and other scholars dropping by all the time.

I learned later that Robert J. Matthews is one of the most revered professors to ever be associated with BYU’s Religion Department. Even after he retired, they let him keep an office on campus, which he visited often. He was called the greatest scholar on the Joseph Smith Translation, and worked on the 1979 version of the LDS Scriptures (you know, with all the awesome cross references and the Bible Dictionary, and the Joseph Smith Translation in it).

In 2007, BYU published a book of essays in his honor, which I was privileged to read because my office was editing and publishing it. It was clear to me through that book that this man’s colleagues and former students who are now professors love him dearly.

And although I only met him once, and just for a few minutes, he really impressed me. At that job I met a lot of professors and scholars. Some, but not all of them, are great scholars. And some, but not all of them, think they are great, and you can tell. Not so with Brother Matthews. He was as sweet and unassuming as you could be.

I saw online today that he has passed away, which made me think about him. I don’t want to pretend I knew him well, but I do think he was a good man.

There is a great article about him here.