In Memory of William Brian Mathias

Obituary

William Brian Mathias passed away to God’s eternal kingdom on Monday September 26, 2022 in the comfort of his own home.

He was born on June 24, 1947 in Riverside, NJ, the beloved son of William Herbert Mathias and Helen Olsen Mathias. At age 15, Brian and his family moved to Lewisburg, PA where he graduated from Lewisburg High School in 1965. He continued his education at the Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport, earning an Associate’s degree in Electronics Engineering in 1967.

Soon after college, he moved to Clinton, NY with his parents and sister and began his career with the Aerospace division at General Electric, a career that spanned 29 years. Brian worked in several roles within the company. Perhaps the project he was most proud of was the “Quality Information Network” that he built from the ground up. His fellow engineering colleagues were frustrated there was no centralized, standard way of testing equipment they were working on, so he designed and built a system that connected several computers and machines together with RS-232 cables (since modern networking protocols were not yet invented). The system had a user interface that he wrote in Fortran that allowed engineers to simply provide inputs and scheduling information to configure and launch a test. This was a game changer for streamlining the testing of equipment within his department and was highly recognized for these efforts. He eventually was able to connect to these systems remotely from home via dial-up modem and send messages back and forth to night operators in cases where the system wasn’t behaving as designed. In addition to his normal work, Brian always went above and beyond to come up with ideas to add value and efficiency to the engineering team. He leveraged GE’s suggestion boxes which paid bonuses for good ideas that were implemented. This certainly helped while raising a family of 15 children!

In the early 2000’s, as the job market in the Utica area changed, true to form, he pivoted, beginning a new career as a Senior Electrical Engineer with Critical Imaging, LLC. Here, he was a key figure in designing, testing, and manufacturing infrared camera systems primarily for military and industrial contracts. One of his proudest accomplishments here was the engineering of long-range cameras for military training systems designed to help our pilots fly safely. Brian was very passionate about his work here and would always light up when given the opportunity to talk about whatever the current project he was working on. He was with Critical Imaging for 17 years and highly valued the relationships he had with his colleagues.

Brian was married to Darlene (Morris) Mathias from 1971 to 2002 whom he met during his time at GE. He was so very proud and committed to each of the 15 children they had together.

Brian accepted Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior. He was baptized and later confirmed his faith in his youth at the Moravian church in Riverside, NJ. He is 5th generation Moravian, with roots going back to Stuttgart Germany. He played the saxophone in the Moravian band during his time in Riverside, alongside beloved sister Ginger and his much-loved father who was the creator and director of the band. After the move to New York State, he joined the Methodist church, was married at the First United Methodist church in New Hartford, and raised his family in the same church, where each of his children were baptized.

Music was an integral part of Brian’s life, having played the saxophone and tuba throughout elementary, middle and high school. He played the sousaphone in the marching band, and played tuba in All-State band, various band camps, symphonic band, orchestra, and concert band. He also had a beautiful voice which developed by singing in choirs at both Riverside Moravian and Beaver Memorial Methodist Churches. Both he and his sister were selected for the PA Regional and State choruses. In his youth, besides his parents and sister who were very musical, Brian’s musical mentor was Allen Flock who was the music director at nearby Bucknell University, Lewisburg High School, and Beaver Memorial Methodist Church. In his late teens and early twenties, Brian played the string bass in a Lewisburg area rock band called the “Sceptres”. When the Animals released “House of the Rising Son”, the Sceptres first heard it from a local radio DJ who hadn’t played it on the radio yet. Brian and the band learned it quickly and started playing at some of Bucknell’s frat houses. When it finally hit the radio, many at the college thought it was a Sceptres original!

Brian took a very optimistic approach to problem solving. He was always up for a challenge and was excited at the opportunity to solve large problems. With his technical background and having a large family, recycling clothes for the children needed to be extremely efficient. So, he created an Alpha5 database in the 1980’s to track and organize clothes. The clothes were stored in large bags, and each had a serial number attached. The serial number was used as an input to the database, which then provided the necessary metadata needed to make decisions. It told him what room in the house the bags were located, the sizes of the clothes, and if they were for boys or girls. With these data points Brian and Darlene could quickly make selection decisions for each child when it was time to go “school clothes shopping”. As with every system, it had its flaws. It was missing a boolean field to indicate if the clothes were still in style. This affected the downstream components, which in this case resulted in the kids sometimes wearing clothes from the 70’s in 1986. Let’s face it, decision systems back then just couldn’t account for the style changes that happened between the 70’s and 80’s.

Brian was a dedicated family man. He loved and cared so much for his kids, their spouses, his grandkids and even their pets. He loved being present in all the family functions and events. If you went to him with a non-standard wiring question, he would research it out and provide several alternate solutions.

Brian had fond memories of spending time in Ocean City, NJ. As a child, his parents owned and rented out flats during the summertime for extra income. Brian was responsible for cleaning and doing maintenance on the properties. His Aunt Dot had a store on Atlantic Avenue, and he was responsible for assembling and renting out bikes to the vacationers. Sometimes, when he was bored, he and his buddies would hide under the boardwalk and stick a five dollar bill up through the cracks. When someone up top would attempt to pick it up, the boys down below would pull it back down quickly and then laugh hysterically. In his teen years, he took a job at the TV repair shop on the island fixing televisions. The Ocean City tradition was carried on into adulthood with some of his own children and grandchildren, their families and of course his sister Ginger and her family.

Brian is survived by his sister Ginger (Mathias) and Brad Bowman and their children: Kiersten, Alix(Bowman) and Tim Perham and their child Audrey; the mother of his children Darlene Mathias; his 15 children and 31 grandchildren: Scott Mathias and Ekaterina Mathias and their children: Sofia and Aleksandr (Sasha); Heather (Mathias) and Andy Hofmeister and their children: Christopher and Ashley Mathias, Benjamin, and David; Sally (Mathias) and Brian Fletcher and their children: Aidan and Megan; Chad Mathias and his children: Trinity, Aria and Mason Mathias Mancari; Greg and Sarah Mathias and their children: Madeline and Charlotte; Christy (Mathias) and William Fishback and their children: Matthew and Michael; Jamie Mathias, Stephanie (Snow) Mathias and their children: Mackenzie, Larry and Gracie; Marc Mathias and Katie Dougherty and their children: Sunny and George; Sara (Mathias) and Justin Damann and their children: Augie and Evelyn; Amy (Mathias) and Jesse Toukatly and their children: Colton and Wyatt; David Mathias and Nicole Schreck-Mathias and their daughter, Chelsea; Marybeth (Mathias) and Joe Garguilo and their daughter, Maeley; Michael and Tessa Mathias and their children: Violet and Baby #2 due April 2023;Brian Mathias II and Carly Steet Mathias and their children: Brian (B3) and Josie; Katie (Mathias) and Nick Briggs and their child Nicky.

When Jesus was comforting his disciples, He said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”

The funeral will be on Saturday October 15th at 10:00am at the First United Methodist Church in New Hartford. Interment will be in Crown Hill Memorial Park. Calling hours will be on Friday October 14th from 4:00pm – 7:00pm at the Friedel, Williams & Edmunds Funeral and Cremation Services, 13 Oxford Rd. New Hartford.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation in Brian’s memory to the New Hartford Fire Department or Edwards Ambulance, Inc.

For online expressions of sympathy go to fwefh.com