Matthew Dewitt Thomason, Jr.

MATTHEW DEWITT THOMASON, JR.

1922-2026

He was born on January 30, 1922, in Columbus, Mississippi, to Matthew Dewitt and Janie Stabler Thomason. When he was four years old in 1926, his mother died shortly after childbirth of his youngest sister. Subsequently, his father married Camilla Pullen of Kosciusko, Mississippi, who became his beloved stepmother until she died in 1988. He was the middle child, having two late sisters, Janie Thomason Niehuss and Doris Thomason Parker.

He was raised in Birmingham, Alabama, was a member of DeMolay fraternity, and graduated from Phillips High School in 1940. He enrolled at the University of Alabama, pledged Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, and also attended Birmingham Southern College. Upon the outbreak of World War II, he enlisted in the United States Army in October 1942.

Corporal Thomason was stationed at Fort McPherson, Georgia, and assigned to the 4th Service Command. While in Atlanta, he met the love of his life, Francis Jeanette Berryman from Bowman, Georgia, who was a secretary for the Attorney General’s office in the Georgia state capital. They were married in January 1945. Upon his honorable military discharge in February 1946 and after the conclusion of World War II, they, along with their newborn son Matthew D. Thomason III, headed back to the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where he resumed his college education. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Advertising in 1948.

After a couple of short moves around the South in the furniture business and the birth of a second son, Bill, he and his growing family moved to Birmingham, Alabama, in 1956. There, he succeeded his retiring father as the credit manager for Perfection Mattress and Spring Company. He remained with this company (later rebranded as Perfection Bedding Company) as Treasurer and finally as General Manager until his retirement in the 1980’s.

During his career and the youth of his sons, he was active in the National Association of Accountants, Civitan International, Toastmasters International, American Radio Relay League, Boy Scouts of America, and Little League Baseball. He was a past president of the Alabama Association of Credit Executives. He was a faithful member of Dawson Memorial Baptist Church in Homewood, Alabama, for over seventy years.

His favorite hobby was his activities with Amateur (“Ham”) radio. Known as “Mike”, K4FQF and his son Mack, K4FQG, obtained their novice licenses together in the early 1960’s. Finally, in 2013, son Bill obtained his ham license and was able to secure the next sequential call letters: K4FQH. “Mike” was a past president of the Birmingham Amateur Radio Club, W4CUE, and made radio contacts with hams in all fifty states and hundreds of countries around the world. He held the highest amateur radio technical qualification, the Advanced License.

In 2012, he and Jeanette moved to “The Parc at Piedmont”, a retirement community in Marietta, Georgia, where they resided until their deaths.

He had two daughters-in-law, Linda (Mack) and Andrea (Bill), six grandchildren, twelve great-grandchildren, and many nieces and nephews.

Services will be scheduled for a later date.

Memorials can be made to The Matthew Dewitt Thomason III Endowed Scholarship Fund at the University of Alabama and/or Southern Preparatory Academy, Camp Hill, Alabama.