A Worker and a Philanthropist
Matel Dawson
1921-2002
He never went to school beyond the eighth grade, but UAW Local 600 member Matel Dawson was a great philanthropist.
A forklift operator who worked for 60 years at the Ford Motor Co. Rouge Complex in Dearborn, Mich., Dawson started giving away his life savings in the early 1990s. Over the next several years, he donated more than $1 million to Detroit’s Wayne State University, Louisiana State University, the United Negro College Fund, local community colleges and the People’s Community Church that he attended in Detroit.
“I’ve owned big homes and big cars, and that don’t excite me no more. I just want people to say that I tried to help somebody,” he once said. He was particularly committed to helping young people get what he never had — a good education.
Dawson appeared on “Oprah” and was invited to the White House by President Bill Clinton. Dawson didn’t retire until February of this year. He died Nov. 2 at the age of 81.
