Cancer claims teacher’s life

Robert “Bob” Mateer passes away after fighting long battle with disease

Former Liberty University business professor Robert “Bob” Mateer died Monday, April 6, at the age of 81 after losing a battle with cancer.

Bob Mateer was born in New Jersey and spent much of his childhood in Louisiana. He had an extensive background in finance and served as vice president for Chase Manhattan Bank before teaching at Liberty for 28 years. At Liberty, he was most known for teaching corporate finance, real estate and investments.

He is survived by wife Marilyn Mateer and his children Dirk Mateer, Marianne Mateer Hardey, Dawn Gorman, Dale Glasgow, Paul Glasgow and Todd Glasgow.

“He’s a great father,” Dirk Mateer, who teaches economics at the University of Arizona, said. “He inspired me to take up my profession, which is very much like his. It is the joy that he got from teaching that made me think twice about going into corporate jobs and instead (led me to) pursue a job to help other students learn.”

According to Scott Hicks, dean of Liberty’s School of Business, Bob Mateer’s greatest contribution to Liberty is the finance department.

“He really just added value to (students) not from a textbook standpoint, but from an experience standpoint,” Scott Hicks said. “Until recently, he was unparalleled. We didn’t have a ton of experience in our professors. We had a lot of academic experience, but not real-world experience.”

Scott Hicks and his wife Melanie Hicks, who is an accounting professor, first met Bob Mateer when they were college students at Liberty in the mid ’90s.

“We were students here, and he was our professor,” Scott Hicks said. “And when we started dating, his wife (Gladys) was passing away at the time, and we became really good friends with him.”

According to Scott Hicks, one of the largest takeaways from any student of Bob Mateer was the importance of cash flow. Bob Mateer loved the concept so much that he even named his cat Cash Flow.

“He really wanted us to understand that cash is king when it comes to business, and the bottom line is really cash,” Scott Hicks said. “Some of his exams were so hard that sometimes 75 percent of the class needed help. I didn’t really understand what he had taught us until a couple of years into corporate life, and the things he taught us were what helped me propel (myself beyond) even the stiffest competition out there.”

Scott Hicks recalled that Bob Mateer loved to pull pranks on students and that they loved to return the favor.

“He loved to joke,” Melanie Hicks said. “He always had a smile on his face. It was rare to ever see him in what we would deem as (having) a bad day.”

Bob Mateer’s wife Marilyn Mateer said she and her husband met at Rivermont Presbyterian Church, and that was where their romantic relationship began.

“His dentist was a friend of mine, so when he was in the dental chair, after his wife had died, he asked his dentist if he knew any eligible women that he could date,” Marilyn Mateer said. “And so (Bob) looked in the church directory and then called me and asked me to go out with him.”

Marilyn Mateer said she and Bob were best friends and that he was her hero. They shared their love of gardening, listening to music, going to concerts, the mountains and taking care of grandchildren. When they eventually married, she said he treated her children as if they were his own. She admired his very upbeat personality and positivity.

“Even when we were courting, he courted me in an old-fashioned way,” Marilyn Mateer said. “He would come by (where I worked) every day and put a greeting card on my car windshield. And if it were raining, he would put it in a plastic bag. And when we became engaged, he bought and put 100 red roses around the room. So he just courted and showed his love in very sweet ways and always put me first.”

Bob Mateer found out he had cancer in November 2013, a little less than a year and a half before it took his life. Despite having cancer, he tried to keep working hard to serve others. He served as treasurer at Redeemer Presbyterian Church, which he and his wife helped form 11 years ago.

“I am so very proud of all that he did and how he handled great adversity with such grace,” Hardey, a Liberty graduate, said. “(He was my) hero, they very essence of what a father, husband and friend should be.”

Dirk Mateer said that even though the cancer was aggressive and his father never fully regained his energy, Bob Mateer battled it without any complaints and rarely talked about the pain.

“He maintained his upbeat personality no matter what,” Marilyn Mateer said. “It was contagious, and it was very good for me. And he completely trusted God’s plan. It came from an attitude of thankfulness. He was always thankful for what God had given him — family, friends, a home and our church.”

In the last year and a half of his life, Bob Mateer would read the Bible aloud to his wife every day. According to Marilyn Mateer, it was during this time that he would constantly try to seek what God would want him to do. He would often tell young people not to chase after their careers while neglecting their families in the process.
“As an older man, he showed us how you should love your wife,” Scott Hicks said. “He wanted to serve her. That became his greatest hobby and accomplishment.”

Janney is the asst. news editor.