By BENNETT HALL
Gazette-Times reporter | Posted: Tuesday, July 8, 2008 12:00 am
Pioneering woman scientist helped build family forest engineering firm
Jean Mater stood just under 5 feet tall, but she cast a long shadow. The diminutive woman with the dynamic personality left an indelible impression on both the wood products industry and the civic affairs of her community.
Mater died of natural causes Sunday at her southwest Corvallis home. She was 92.
She is survived by son James Mater of Portland and his wife, Sharon; daughter-in-law Catherine Mater of Corvallis; and four grandchildren, Josh Mater, 27, of Fayetteville, N.C.; Alexa Mater, 26, of Santa Cruz, Calif; Jason Mater, 24, of Burbank, Calif; and Elana Mater, 24, of Portland. She was preceded in death by her husband, Milton Mater, in 1991, and a son, Scott Mater, in 2002.
Born Jean Marmorstein on June 18, 1916, in New York City, she graduated from Brooklyn College in 1937 and earned a master's degree in chemistry from Cornell University in 1940. She married Milt Mater the same year, and the couple moved to Corvallis in 1946.
During World War II, while her husband served in Italy with the U.S. Army, Jean made her own contribution to the war effort as a chemist with Bell Labs, where she worked on ways to combat German U-boats. Women scientists were almost unheard-of in those days, but Mater would go on to break a number of other gender barriers.
Jean and Milt worked side by side to build their business from a small machine shop into a world leader in the forestry industry, recalled Hal Salwasser, dean of the College of Forestry at Oregon State University.
"She and her husband helped sawmills with a lot of efficiency improvements," Salwasser said. "Mater Engineering was (also) a very early champion of what came to be known as sustainable forestry."
In 1955 Mater earned a doctorate in forest products chemistry from OSU, and she went on to write a number of books on forestry issues, including 1997's "Reinventing the Forestry Industry." She was a fellow of the Society of American Foresters and was honored for her contributions by the Forest Products Society.
She also became a strong advocate for the College of Forestry.
"She was very active in giving us counsel, even when we didn't ask for it. But it was always welcome," Salwasser said. "Her impact on the industry and on forestry practices in Oregon was just the opposite of her size."
Mater was extremely active in civic affairs, earning recognition as Corvallis First Citizen in 1975 and Senior First Citizen in 2006.
In 1974 she was named president of the Corvallis Chamber of Commerce, the first woman to hold such a position in the state. Nor was she a mere figurehead, playing a leading part in overcoming community opposition to Hewlett-Packard's plans to open a calculator plant in Corvallis.
Twenty years later, after HP had firmly established itself as the city's largest private employer and a major force in charitable giving, Mater looked back on her role in that chapter of local history.
"We wanted a clean industry that required educated people and would be pleasant to have and compatible with Corvallis," she told the Gazette-Times in 1994. "We all said HP would lead to a lot of small satellite high-tech industries, which is exactly what happened."
Jean Mater held a number of leadership positions in business organizations statewide, including stints with the Governor's Employment and Training Council, the Oregon Consortium, the OSU College of Business Advisory Council and the Private Industry Council. She also sat on the board of the Portland branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
Mater was active in social causes as well, helping to organize the Corvallis chapter of Altrusa International in 1958.
"Jean and I were the only remaining members of the original organization," said Helen Hansen, a past chapter president and district governor of the women's community service organization. "We had an awful lot of parties and picnics and such at her home - it was always open to everyone."
Hansen called her longtime friend "a great lady" and "the smartest woman I ever saw."
Mater went to great lengths to get her scientific training in an era when women were not welcome in the laboratory or the lecture hall, Hansen said.
"She would get into a class next to a science class," Hansen recalled. "And she would sit in the back and listen to the science discussions that were going on (in the next room)."
Mater's indomitable spirit never left her, even as she struggled in recent years with heart problems and other health issues, said her older son, James, who owns a software company in Portland. Once, recovering from a broken shoulder in a local nursing home, his mother insisted she wanted to attend an all-day Federal Reserve meeting in Portland.
"We all said, 'You're crazy,'" he recalled - but they might as well have saved their breath. "Sure enough, she found someone to take her and, by God, she went.
"She was always looking for ways to participate and get out," he added. "She didn't do things like play bridge. … She was a remarkable woman in that respect."
Jean Mater's professional life was closely intertwined with her family life. When her husband, Milt, died in 1991, Jean continued to run Mater Engineering along with her younger son, Scott, and his wife, Catherine. After Scott Mater died in 2002, Catherine remained active in the company, eventually becoming head of Mater Engineering as Jean ran a separate company, Mater International.
In more than 30 years of working together, Catherine Mater said, she saw her mother-in-law as a mentor in many ways.
"Her life was one of service to her community and service to her industry," Catherine said.
She also recalled a more personal side of Jean Mater, one she first glimpsed on a trip to New York with her in-laws not long after her wedding.
While Scott and Milt made a business call, Jean and Catherine went shopping, arranging to meet later at Bloomingdale's. When the men arrived at the department store, Catherine said, there was an emotional reunion.
"Scott and I were the newlyweds, but it was Jean and Milt who came running to each other, twirled around and kissed," she said. "It was a great template for Scott and I."
Jean Mater died Sunday afternoon at her home surrounded by family, including her son and two daughters-in-law. Grandson Josh Mater, on leave from the Army after a tour of duty in Iraq, was traveling to Corvallis to collect a shipment of donated textbooks at OSU bound for a sister university in the war-torn nation. He had hoped to be in time to see his grandmother once more, but he arrived an hour too late. Still, he managed to reach her by phone.
"She heard his voice," said his mother, Catherine Mater, "and then she took her last breath."
Mater memorial
WHAT: Memorial service for Jean Mater
WHEN: 11 a.m. Thursday
WHERE: First Congregational United Church of Christ, 4515 S.W. West Hills Road
FOR MORE: See Jean Mater's obituary on A4.
Bennett Hall can be reached at 758-9529 or bennett.hall@lee.net.