Ex-county judge Matkin dies 56
Raymond Matkin helped the elderly through work with Friends for Life.
TERRI JO RYAN; Tribune-Herald staff writer
June 12, 2003
Former McLennan County Judge Raymond Matkin, who prided himself on his work helping the elderly through organizations such as Friends for Life, died Tuesday evening after a long illness. He was 56.
A lifelong Democrat, Raymond Matkin campaigned for many local office-holders but held only one such position himself — that of McLennan County judge from January 1987 to January 1991.
In 1986 he bested one Republican and four Democratic challengers to succeed Stanley Rentz. He was toppled in a March 1990 election by then-Precinct 2 Commissioner Jim Lewis.
Lewis on Wednesday recalled that he and his former opponent “turned out to be good friends.” “We worked together a lot after he left office,” Lewis said. “He did a tremendous amount of work for Friends for Life probating guardianships, and that falls under my jurisdiction. He always laughed and said the best thing that ever happened to him was leaving office. That took a lot of stress and strain off of him.”
Lewis said the best trait he picked up from Matkin was to “back off and look at things a little harder. He taught me to slow down on things and, of course, he was correct about that.”
During his tenure as county judge, Matkin told the Tribune-Herald that he was most proud of founding the community 9-1-1 system, the McLennan County Emergency Assistance District. He also had a hand in creating the DARE drug education program aimed at elementary students and set standards for the Cameron Park Zoo.
A Waco native, Matkin and his older brother, Donald, were raised by their mother after their father died when Raymond was 11. He graduated from Waco High School in 1964 and graduated from Baylor University in 1968 with an accounting degree.
In 1971, he completed Baylor School of Law, and he became a prosecutor in the McLennan County District Attorney’s office under Martin Eichelberger. He became chief felony prosecutor but left the office in 1977 to enter private practice.
He met his future wife at the District Attorney’s Office. “We tried our first felony together,” Karen Matkin said, recalling how she and her husband met. “(The criminal) got a conviction and a life sentence. It was a great way to start a career.”
They did not begin dating until after he went into private practice, she added. They married on June 10, 1978.
Finding motivation
Matkin enjoyed telling of how a driver running a red light made a lawyer out of him: While he attended Baylor, his old car was totaled by another driver who ignored a traffic signal. Although Matkin was relieved when the parties involved agreed he wasn’t at fault, Matkin was irked when the insurance company offered only $100 for his $400. So he hired an attorney to press his cause.
“I decided I wanted to know how to protect my rights and make a living protecting the rights of others, too,” he told the Tribune-Herald in a March 1990 interview.
Late in life, Matkin became interested in championing the rights of the elderly and infirm, his wife said. “It started when he was a county judge, and there were all these problems with the elderly who had no family or friends to ask for help on their behalf,” she recalled. “There was no one to do the work except young lawyers, but there were no long-term solutions until he came along.”
With his expertise in issues of probate court, guardianship and estates, she said, he became a great friend of Friends for Life, the nonprofit agency that helps senior citizens maintain independence. “For the last 12 years, Raymond Matkin donated thousands of hours of legal services to work with this charity to help hundreds of elderly and disabled adults who lack the capacity to take care of themselves,” said Friends for Life executive director Inez Russell.
His example encouraged other local lawyers to donate their services to help incapacitated people. Russell said that a part of the new intergenerational facility that Friends for Life is currently raising money for will be named in honor of Raymond Matkin.
Karen Matkin said her husband’s death Tuesday came on their 25th wedding anniversary. She said she believes he held on just long enough to share “their day” together, one last time.