"There is Sunshine in My Soul Today" might not be standard music for a
funeral, but it set the tone LDS scholar Robert J. Matthews told his
family he wanted for his final rites.
In a ceremony filled with fond memories and laughter, Matthews was
remembered by his four children, three fellow members of BYU's Department
of Religious Education faculty and by President Boyd K. Packer of the
Quorum of the Twelve of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,
who read a letter of condolence from the church's First Presidency to Matthews'
widow, Shirley Matthews.
__IMAGE1__Funeral services were held Thursday morning in the Lindon 6th Ward chapel.
Matthews, who was a former dean of religious education at BYU, died Aug.
30 of complications following open-heart surgery. He was 82 years old.
Matthews had asked for a simple funeral, and had planned most of the
service, right down to designing the program, which featured on its cover
a sketch of the Mount Timpanogos Temple, where he had served as the first
temple president.
"I hope he is not embarrassed by the praise he receives today, and he
knows it is given in the spirit of love," said his daughter, Tricia Lucas,
who delivered the life sketch.
The letter from the LDS Church's First Presidency recognized Matthews's
role in restoring the Joseph Smith translation of the Bible as part of the
the church's standard works. He played an important role with the
committee that published a new LDS edition of the King James Version of
the Bible in 1979.
"We appreciate Brother Matthews' dedicated service in the church in many
capacities," the letter reads. "We gratefully acknowledge his contribution
to the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible and the Bible Dictionary."
Matthews was praised as a "silent warrior" by Monte S. Nyman, a fellow BYU
faculty member and longtime friend, for his low key approach to many of
the leadership positions he held.
"Robert Matthews has just been transferred to another field of labor, and
he is going about doing the same things he said and did here," Nyman said.
Robert L. Millet, emeritus dean of religious education at BYU, said
Matthews was a mentor for 40 years.
"Bob was a wonderful teacher," Millet said, "but Brother Matthews never
had a following. He never encouraged anyone to look anywhere other than
the Lord. He was a man devoid of arrogance."
"Bob's life was about people and their happiness," added Larry C. Porter,
also a former member of BYU's religious education faculty.
Matthews' children remembered their father's keen sense of humor and his
love of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
"My father had a great gift for teaching the gospel and a great love for
the Prophet Joseph Smith," said Daniel R. Matthews, "and he devoted much
of his life to learning."
At the same time, if anyone asked him what he did, "he would tell them he
was just a farm boy from Evanston, Wyo."
Robert D. Matthews said his father asked that the funeral focus on
religion.
"One of his chief requests was that the gospel should be preached," he
said. "The need for spiritual enlightenment was manifest in everything he
did."
E-mail: mhaddock@desnews.com