Background
William John Matheson was born on September 15, 1856 in Elkhorn, Wisconsin. He was the son of Finlay and Anna Meigs (Lighthall) Matheson. After a boyhood in British Guinea, he was educated at St. Andrews, Scotland.
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William John Matheson
Edit Profilechemist Financier philanthropist
Education
In the 1870s William John Matheson spent two years working and studying in the Chemistry Department at St. Andrew's University in Scotland, but was not an enrolled student.
Career
His interest in chemistry began during his school days, and when twenty years old he opened a laboratory in New York City. Little was then known in America regarding the production of synthetic colors, and in the development of the processes of dyeing he found his greatest opportunity. He secured, first, an appointment as representative of A. Porrier, Paris, but by 1880 he had joined Leopold Cassella & Company, beginning an association which covered a period of forty years. Though in time he organized his own companies, among them the W. J. Matheson Company, Ltd. , the Matheson Lead Company, and the Hamolin Company, it was the Cassella Color Company, distributors of synthetic hydro-carbons, to which in later years he gave almost his entire attention. At the outbreak of the World War, he devoted his energies to stabilizing the dye industry, and when the entry of the United States into that conflict cut off the American importation of German dyes, he used his experience and ability in meeting his country's needs. His interests were by no means confined to his chosen profession. Occasionally he turned antiquarian, and in 1918 published An Historical Sketch of Fort Hill, Lloyd Neck, Long Island. Though many philanthropic enterprises gained his attention from time to time, perhaps his greatest service to mankind was the establishment of a fund, in 1927, for an international study of epidemic encephalitis, popularly known as "sleeping sickness. " A committee of eminent physicians representing the laboratory, clinical, and epidemiological viewpoints was appointed for the purpose of collecting and tabulating the work being done throughout the world on this subject. The first report of the Matheson Commission, Epidemic Encephalitis, was published in 1929. The commission was deprived of his personal assistance by his sudden death on board his yacht, the Seaforth, while returning from a cruise in the Bahama Islands, but the continuance of its work was assured by the terms of his will, which established a fund of two million dollars for the organization and maintenance of the William J. Matheson Foundation for charitable and educational purposes, its first work to be in encephalitis research.
Achievements
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As president and chairman of the board of the National Aniline & Chemical Company, Matheson was a leader in the development of the practical as well as the scientific aspects of the dye industry. He was also instrumental in organizing the Allied Chemical & Dye Corporation, usually regarded as the climax of his business career of fifty years, covering almost the entire history of American synthetic dyes. In 1920 St. Andrews University, Scotland, bestowed upon him the degree of LL. D. in recognition of his achievements. He was a pioneer in real-estate projects in Florida, where he made his winter home for twenty-five years, beginning operations there in 1904. To the Long Island Biological Association, which he served as president from 1905 to 1923, he gave freely of his time and resources. One of his important achievements, it is said, was the extermination of mosquitoes from the north shore of Long Island.
Connections
In 1881 Matheson married Harriet Torrey, and to them two sons and one daughter were born.
