William John Matus

Bill Matus passed away quietly at his home in Topinabee, MI on November  17, 2016, concluding an active and rewarding 94 years of life.  Born in a Cleveland, Ohio parsonage on June13, 1922, his family soon moved to Manhattan where his father Joseph became Pastor of the Hungarian Baptist Church. Bill had fond memories of New York, especially local characters like the candy shop owner, playing hand ball and carrying slips of paper for local bookies and secreting them in the bumpers of selected parked cars.

Around age 15 his parents separated and Bill moved with his mother, Elizabeth, to Alanson MI, and then to a farm which had no electricity or indoor plumbing.  By his account he walked a mile in the snow to school every day, even during the summer. After graduating from Gladwin High School, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1942, and spent most of WWII at the Leiston Air Base in England where he was Supply Sergeant. After the war, Bill earned a degree in Social Science and Psychology from Central Michigan University and soon found work in the Pontiac Children’s Home and Juvenile Detention Center.

Over a few short years his aplomb for working with children facing adversity came to the attention of Oakland County philanthropists Jim Hunt, Walter Gherke, Carl Barton, and Judge Arthur E. Moore, who asked him to develop a less institutional children’s home.  Bill selected a former dairy farm in Oxford, Michigan where the children would be integrated into the local school system and live in a family-like setting.  In 1953, he moved to the farm, still stocked with cows to be milked daily, and one boy named Hilary. The program grew dramatically over the years and drew newly-degreed staff with an interest in social work, one being his future wife Beverly Martin of Cheboygan.

Bill and Beverly lived at what came to be Camp Oakland Youth Programs (now Crossroads For Youth) and became fixtures in the community where they raised their own three children, as well as helping to guide the lives of hundreds of other boys and girls.   He is survived by three sons, Mark, Todd and Jamie; daughters-in-law, Bonnie, Cheryl and Sue; four grandchildren, Meghan (Blake), Allegra, Emily and Will; two great grandchildren, Brayden and Logan; and by the many sons and daughters of Camp Oakland who also knew him as Dad.

Donations in lieu of flowers may be made to Crossroads For Youth, http://crossroadsforyouth.org.  A Spring 2017 rememberance event in Oxford will be scheduled, with details to be posted at https://www.facebook.com/CrossroadsForYouth/_