Martin Luther Mathews is the co-founder and former president emeritus of the Mathews-Dickey Boys and Girls Club. His work spanned over 60 years impacting over a million young lives and has been recorded in his biography “I Trust You With My Life.”

In 1960, while coaching a boys’ baseball team, Mathews met another neighborhood youth coach, the late Hubert “Dickey” Ballentine. Both men had played semipro baseball. They shared a mutual concern: keeping young men on the fields and off the streets. From that meeting, a baseball league was formed, then a small storefront building for club meetings, to eventually, after a multi-million dollar campaign, a facility equipped with an Olympic-sized pool, basketball gymnasiums, community meeting rooms, music rooms, administrative offices, and tutorial labs for learning about computers. In 1982, President Ronald Reagan dedicated the new facility, declaring it a model for the country, and presented the co-founders with the Presidential Citizens Medal. Since then, the club has continued to grow in size and scope with such additions as the James “Cool Papa” Bell multipurpose outdoor athletic complex, a 19,000 square-foot Girls’ Program expansion wing, and Bob Russell Park in North County.

In 1998, President Bill Clinton lauded the club as a 21st Century learning center. Vice presidents Joe Biden and Dan Quayle have both recognized the club’s outstanding career, leadership, and mentoring programs.

For his dedication to youth, Mathews has received numerous honors, including the A&E Biography Community Heroes Awards, the FBI Director’s Community Leadership Award, the St. Louis Globe-Democrat’s Humanitarian Award, and the Focus St. Louis What’s Right With The Region Award. 

In 2013, Mathews received an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree. He has received honorary doctorate degrees from St. Louis University, Washington University, Webster University, and the University of Missouri at St. Louis. 

A champion for youth, Mathews has forged strong relationships with business and community leaders. In 1992, he worked with Major League Baseball and the St. Louis Cardinals to create the Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) program. That same year, he helped the Federal Bureau of Investigation establish the Motivation, Vocation, and Preparation (MVP) program for combating gang violence. 

Today, the Mathews-Dickey Boys and Girls Club provides cultural, educational, and athletic programs to a diverse population of more than 40,000 young men and women, ages 5-18, throughout the St. Louis metropolitan area.

Martin L. Mathews passed away on November 8, 2022.