Homewood Man, 95, Had 'Moxie,' Served Veterans 'Out Of The Kindness Of His Heart'

HOMEWOOD, IL — If you saw a picture of Melvin Mathias, you saw him flashing a grin.

The longtime Homewood man rarely went without a smile, his son Larry said, reflecting on the legacy his father left. Melvin—affectionately known as "Mel"—died in February, at 95 years old.

A devoted father, Army veteran and retired sheet metal worker, he lived in Homewood for nearly six decades, and his contributions run deep. He cherished his connection to the veteran community, Mathias said, and served as corresponding secretary for the Wally Burns Post 8077 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

"My dad never took a picture that didn’t have a smile on it," Mathias said. "He enjoyed the camaraderie of the veteran community, and that meant everything to him."

Mathias and his sister Linda, 68, spoke with Patch, detailing their father's life—one well-lived, with glimpses into triumph, growth, adventure and one of history's darkest chapters.

Born in Fulda, Germany in November 1929, Melvin was a Holocaust survivor who immigrated to the United States in October 1936 with his parents and maternal grandparents to escape religious persecution by the Nazis. Sponsored by relatives who owned the now-defunct Frank's Department Stores, the Mathias family settled on Chicago's South Side. He was just 7 years old at the time.

He didn't often speak of his childhood in Germany until later in life, Linda said.

"Growing up, that was not a big conversation in our family," Linda said. "It was of the generation [that it was] better that we just think of better times.

"He almost didn’t talk about his experiences, almost until he was the last of the family left alive."

Melvin had not been incarcerated in a camp, but could recall his encounters with Nazi youth, he said.

"He had interactions with the Nazi youths that knocked him down and broke his nose, knocked him into a ditch," Larry, 65, said.

Melvin had also remarked that he and Anne Frank—a German-born Jewish girl and diarist who documented her life in hiding amid Nazi persecution of the Netherlands—were born just months apart, Frank in June 1929 and Melvin in November of the same year. Melvin spoke to his granddaughter's fifth-grade class about his link to the Holocaust.

"The parallel of being sponsored by a family that was already here in the U.S.—where we all knew her story, in talking to young students about it," Larry said, "it showed a different side of what that escape looked like."

After arriving in the United States, Mel shared the first floor of a two-flat apartment building with his parents, Erich and Kathinka, and uncle, aunt and cousins, Ernest, Lena and Sidney.

He became a United States citizen on July 7th, 1943. Mathias was drafted into the U.S. Army eight years later and served in the Korean War until 1953. Assigned initially to engineering duties with the 336th Engineer Utilities Detachment, he was reassigned to the plumber role upon his arrival on the Korean Peninsula. He earned the Korean Service medal, National Defense Service medal, United Nations Korean Service medal, Republic of Korea War Service medal, and the Korean Presidential Unit Citation medal. He received an "Ambassador of Peace" medal from the South Korean government.

After his discharge from the military, he started working for his uncle at Quality Sheet Metal Works in Chicago. He eventually became the co-owner with his cousin Sid, running the HVAC company until it closed in 1992.

"He loved the geometry aspects of shaping the ductwork and the angles and the booths of the light, and putting in an HVAC system in a house," Larry said.

"He loved maximizing the use of the metal. He loved the geometry and math aspect."

He met his first wife Joanne on a blind date and married her in 1955. His family relocated from Chicago’s southeast side to Homewood in 1970, where Joanne died in 1990. He later remarried Adrienne Cohen in 1993, and the couple remained together until her passing in 2012. Mel remained living in the house up until his death.

With roots firmly planted in Homewood, his life branched out there. A member of the congregation of Temple B’nai Yehuda, in 1971, the Mathias family was one of 13 families that relocated with the temple when it moved to Homewood from Chicago’s South Side, according to his obituary.

Melvin was well-known and deeply respected in Homewood, his children said. He made a point of patronizing local businesses.

"Dad loved to have meals at local restaurants," Linda said. "He was a regular at Grady’s, he really liked trying out new restaurants when they opened up. He definitely was a local guy.

"Whenever something new opened in Homewood, he’d try to be one of the first."

It was that eagerness that earned him an invitation to the soft opening of Wind Creek Chicago Southland casino.

"He wouldn’t go if I wouldn’t go," Larry said, chuckling. "We went and played blackjack together.

"... He couldn’t wait for that. All along he was counting the weeks and then the days."

It wasn't about the wins for him—he liked the $5 tables, Linda said—it was more the thrill of chance.

"It was spending the time at the table," Larry said. "It wasn’t that he was going to make a lot of money. He wanted the enjoyment of the gambling, but he was conservative with his money."

Mel didn't shy from adventure. After retiring, he enjoyed traveling with his family across parts of the United States, the Caribbean, Europe, and the Middle East. Favorite memories included herding cattle in Ireland with one of his construction contractors; visiting the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, also known as the Western Wall (the last remaining outer wall of the ancient Jewish temple); horseback riding near the Carabali Rainforest in Puerto Rico; a helicopter tour over Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island of Hawaii; multiple visits to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico with family and friends; and several Caribbean cruises. In the summer of 2024, he took a 12-day, 4,500-mile road trip to eight national parks in the western and southern United States to see some of the national parks he had never visited—including a stop at his favorite U.S. destination: Las Vegas.

He was a devoted fan of the Chicago White Sox, Chicago Bulls and Chicago Bears. He passionately followed the men's and women's sports at the University of Illinois. He was also an avid recreational golfer and bowler until injuries prevented him from participating, his obituary reads.

Linda recalled that earlier in his life, Melvin would tutor players at Homewood-Flossmoor High School in math and science.

"... In exchange for tickets for good seats," she chided. "They would get him good tickets, close to 50-yard line seats on the field."

Even late in life, Mel followed HFHS sports, and was even honored at halftime.

".... he was very excited when HF did well," Linda said. "Even though we weren’t following our alma mater, he was, and keeping us very informed."

He was a staunch supporter of the White Sox—win or lose. In 1959, the family went to as many games as they could—and it paid off when they won the World Series in 2005.

"His roots were always there," Larry said. "When the White Sox went to the World Series, he sent all the ticket stubs to the White Sox, and they sent him tickets to Game 1."

It was a life lesson that's stuck with Larry.

"He taught me ‘it never hurts to ask,’" he said. "He taught me that, and it’s always better to ask for forgiveness than permission. He had moxie."

Linda holds tight to her own lessons from their father.

"My dad was very accepting of people," she said. "Having his early life experiences be so rough, it was that we weren’t better than anybody else.

"Everybody was to be accepted and looked for what they could offer. And I think that he always wanted to help people in his quiet ways, usually with building problems, and just was very humble about that. He didn’t like a lot of the attention. He’d probably be a little uncomfortable that we were having this interview with you."

The spotlight fell on Mel in 2016, when he participated in Honor Flight Chicago, an effort to honor the nation's senior war veterans with a one-of-a-kind journey to Washington, DC. His contributions to the local veterans community were important to him, but he wasn't accustomed to being celebrated.

"He always did it without wanting to be recognized," Larry said.

"He was humbled. He was surprised anybody cared about what he did as a veteran, but they did."

It was just his nature, Linda said.

"... He did what he did out of the kindness of his heart, and not that he was looking for any sort of reward."

Services for Melvin were held in February.

Donations in his memory may be made to the Veterans’ Home at Manteno, 1 Veterans Drive, Manteno, Ill. 60950, or Temple Beth-El, 10001 Columbia Ave, Munster, Ind. 46321.