Schon, Mathias J. - 1910-1966

SCHON, WARS

Posted By: Linda Vander Linden-Volunteer (email)
Date: 10/15/2015 at 16:10:00

Hawarden Independent, September 15, 1966

Col. Mathias J. Schon, Jr., 56 who was born in Hawarden and was graduated from high school here in 1928, died last Thursday night at the Lee Nursing home at Petersburg, VA, from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as the Lou Gehrig disease.

He was buried in Arlington National cemetery.

Colonel Schon was at the National Institute of Health for three weeks where he offered to undergo tests in the hope he might be of value in research which is taking place there on the Lou Gehrig disease.

He was born June 17, 1910. At Hawarden high school he was active in oratorical contests, debate and extemporaneous speaking.

The colonel was a Phi Beta Kappa graduated from the University of Texas in 1938.

Before entering the Army in 1940 he worked in the county AAA office in Orange City and later in the state AAA office in Des Moines. Because of his health, he retired from the Army in 1963 and since that time had made his home at 1005 Northampton Road in Petersburg.

He married Genevieve Wars of Denmark, Iowa in 1942. Other survivors include two children, Mathias J. Schon, III, a junior at William & Mary College in Williamsburg, VA and Mary Elizabeth Schon, a junior in high school at Petersburg.

Colonel Schon also has a brother, Leo who is with the F.B.I. in San Francisco and two sisters, Mrs. Paul Sweeney of Moville, Iowa, and Mrs. C. J. Farley of Waterloo.

Mrs. Farley recently returned to Waterloo after spending two weeks with Colonel Schon and his family.

In December of 1964, Colonel Schon was featured in a publication of the National Institute of Health as he demonstrated the "Speakeasy" a communication device developed by his friends at Fort Lee, VA, to overcome his inability to speak.

At that time muscular atrophy had made Colonel Schon incapable of almost all muscle usage throughout his body. His friends invented a large clock-like board, with letters, words and numbers on the face and equipped with a pointer controlled electronically by an easy tap of the finger.