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Floy Ione Wetzel Matthews ’44

A picture of Floy Wetzel Matthews

Floy Ione Wetzel Matthews ’44, November 15, 2011, in Beaverton, Oregon. Floy came to Reed from LaGrande, Oregon, and earned a BA in psychology. She continued her studies in psychology at Columbia University, where she received an MA and met William I. Matthews, whom she married. They had one son, Wells Matthews ’76. Floy’s career in clinical psychology included positions in New York, Iowa, and Vermont. She was the staff psychologist at the Hamilton Center, a mental health center in Rockville, Indiana, until she retired in 1985. In Rockville, Floy volunteered for adult literacy and was a voracious reader, with her own key to the public library. She also acted as a general contractor and built a spectacular house in the woods, which attracted a peacock she named Picasso. Birds, raccoons, and squirrels were frequent visitors to her house, and occasional foes. “She trapped a large cat harassing her pets, only later realizing it was a bobcat,” Wells told us. In retirement, Floy maintained a limited private practice and volunteered in a county hospice program and with the Parke Adult Tutoring Service, a young adult literacy program that she started in Parke County, Indiana. She returned to Oregon in 1996 to be near her family and enjoyed attending a Beaverton Library book group and teaching classes at the Elsie Stuhr Center. Survivors include her son, daughter-in-law Joanne Oshiro ’78, and granddaughter Laura.

Appeared in Reed magazine: March 2012