December 27, 1968

Claude L. Levering, 88, retired businessman and founder of a valor award for electrical industry workers, died Thursday, Dec. 26, 1968, at Missouri Baptist Hospital.

Mr. Matthews, of Rt. 1, Manchester, had been hospitalized earlier this week as a result of a fall in his home.

Long prominent in St. Louis business and civic affairs, Mr. Matthews and his brother, William, established the W. N. Matthews Corp., an electrical firm, early in this century. The firm was merged into another company in the 1950s, when Mr. Matthews retired.

He was the son of the late Leonard and Mary Nisbet Matthews. Leonard Matthews, a well-known banker and broker who died here in 1931 at the ago of 102, was one of the original trustees of the Missouri Botanical Garden (Shaw’s Garden).

Claude Matthews, who was born in St. Louis, attended Smith Academy and was graduated from Princeton University in 1902. Among his many affiliations, he was a charter member of the St. Louis Country Club.

The Claude L. Matthews valor award was established in 1936 to honor outstanding acts of courage and devotion to duty by employees of electrical companies. Mr. Matthews was president of his firm when the award was created.

Twenty-three of the awards were given at one time in 1952 to employees of Union Electric Co. who maintained electrical service to St. Charles during a Missouri River flood.

Mr. Matthews’ survivors include his wife, Mrs. Deane H. Matthews; two daughters, Miss Jane S. Matthews of London, England, and Mrs. John R. McGinley of New Canaan, Conn.; a son, Rives S. Matthews of Scottsdale, Ariz.; two grandsons and three great-grandchildren; a stepson, H. Wayne Crawford of Manchester, and two step-grandchildren.