Robert Mathe

Robert Mathe (1920-2008) established the Elinor V. Metzen Mathe Scholarship in 1999 in memory of his wife, Elinor.

Elinor graduated from Oshkosh State Teachers College in 1941. Her long-time ambition was to become a middle school teacher. She immediately accepted a middle school position in Benzonia, Michigan. Elinor thoroughly enjoyed her teaching position and remained there until June 1943 when she married Robert E. Mathe who had just graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, NY.

Elinor and Bob spent the next 25 years moving from place to place from one assignment to another as Bob pursued a military career. When Bob was overseas during World War II, Elinor returned to Wisconsin and taught in Sheboygan and Fond du Lac schools from 1944 to 1946. After assignments in NM, TX, IL and VA, the Mathes went to Venezuela where Elinor home schooled their children, Andrea and Bob. Three additional children (Rick, Bill and Jon) were added to the family during assignments in KS, DC, PA and VA. With five children and moves to CO, Germany, DC, VA, back to CO and VA, Elinor’s home was her classroom as she endlessly taught family members how to live and how to achieve academically, financially, and socially. The success of the Mathe family members is a tribute to Elinor’s skills as a teacher, as well as a mother.

Elinor passed away in 1996. Although she had ambitions to return to graduate school and the teaching profession, her busy life never allowed her to achieve those goals. This scholarship was established to assist others in achieving what Elinor never had the chance to do.