Maxine G. Mathews History Scholarship

For someone who never married, “Miss Maxine” Mathews had a very large family. First of all, she had three brothers with families that she adored. Also, as a popular professor, she counted hundreds of college and university students as family.

Maxine was born in Gardner, Tennessee, the only daughter of Mary Jane and William A. Mathews. She earned her bachelor of arts degree from Moody Institute and her master of arts from the University of Chicago. After completing most of the requirements for her doctorate at USC, she accepted a position teaching history and international relations at East Tennessee State, a branch of the University of Tennessee. After her mother died, Maxine moved to California to be closer to family and to accept a position as assistant professor of history and political science at Pepperdine.

Maxine was a member of the prestigious Speakers’ Bureau for the United Nations and was a world traveler, lecturer, writer and authority on international relations and world affairs. In 1950 she was selected as one of 70 U.S. delegates to the Carnegie Peace Foundation seminars held at the Sorbonne in Paris, France, in The Hague, Netherlands, and in Geneva, Switzerland.

“Miss Maxine,” as her students affectionately called her, exerted great influence on the lives of those she taught and had very high expectations for her students. Her classes were filled to overflowing due to her dynamic teaching and personal magnetism. Despite a heavy schedule of teaching and campus activities, she still made time for her first love, her church. She was proficient as a Bible teacher and served as superintendent of a large youth department for many years, continuing these activities well into her retirement.

Maxine was the beloved sister of Ben B. Mathews and aunt to CLU president Mark A. Mathews. During Mark’s presidency, Maxine’s sister-in-law, Hermine (Mrs. Ben) Mathews, made her first major gift to CLC by endowing two scholarships—one in memory of Maxine and another in memory of her parents, Marie and John Muller. The Maxine G. Mathews History Scholarship, like Maxine herself, demands academic excellence—a 3.5 minimum grade point average in the major of history.