Final post from my pops

Daniel Johnson Matthews, proud scion of several pre-revolution pioneer Georgia families (Johnson, Medlock, Chandler on his mother’s side and Blackshear, Hamilton, Floyd on his father’s) left this world November 29,2001 hoping for an all time great family reunion with those foregone folks.  

 Fifth generation to live on the family’s Druid Hills acreage he was probably the county’s oldest to dwell in one spot – certainly Druid Hills which the family preceded by several generations and helped bring about by sale of some of the original farm (bought from a Revolutionary war  widow named Cosby).

Dan’s mother, Antoinette Johnson Matthews, was Georgia’s first independent nursery school/kindergarten operator and taught many of Atlanta’s elite along with her son.  He went from her Out-of-Doors school on Oakdale to Druid Hills, then WW-II years in uniform (Charlottesville grey, not khakis) at GMC in Milledgeville.  Entering Emory University at 16, it didn’t take long for both sides to see they weren’t a match.  Several years in the Dublin Georgia area ensued where he developed a lifetime of sales skills selling Chappell’s Mill cornmeal to stores in Central Georgia.

A friend of George Sparks and Georgia Press chief Stan Smith, Dan returned to college at what was then Atlanta Division, UGA on what was then Ivy Street., He was editor of the College’s Signal newspaper for a record five quarters.  From there he moved to Athens, necessary to get his journalism degree.  His proudest achievement there was helping Earl Varner of Swainsboro establish the Emanuel County Pine tree Festival. 

This led to his being invited to join Meredith Corp’s executive training program, Des Moines, which he did immediately after graduation (Turning down a $35 a week spot at the AJC for twice that in Iowa!).  Having spent many fruitful summers at camps in NC Dan used knowledge of trees and plants gained at Transylvania, Sequoyah, and Blue Star to land an assistant editors job in the Garden Department of Better Homes and Gardens under the legendary Fleeta Brownell Woodruffe who termed Dan the best plant I  ever raised.  

As BH&G’s top “idea guy” Dan moved through Garden, Handyman, Architecture and Newsstand Annuals departments into advertising where he excelled in Chicago and led the Detroit office to record sales.  Moving from Michigan back to Iowa, Dan joined the Citizen Cowles', now Neuharth's Des Moines Register and Tribune where he put his upbringing to work as Southeastern manager for the R&T Syndicate.  His big achievement there was putting an old UGA buddy, Lewis Grizzard, into his first 100 newspapers (beyond AJC).  To this day AJC readers enjoy such folks as Kenny Wagham, Eunice Farmer, the Kovels and Solunar Tables courtesy of his erstwhile efforts.  

In the 80’s Dan moved from Iowa back to his ancestral acres on Oakdale Road to oversee the real estate and his aging mother who died in 1989 at 95 and was eulogized by Sam Massell (former student), Franklin Garrett (fellow historian) and other Atlanta leaders.