Lance R. Mather

Lance Russell Mather, born to Russell and Gertrude Mather on December 1, 1942, passed away on May 23. 2019 in Grand Rapids, MI due to heart failure following a blood infection that reached his heart. He graduated from Middletown High School in Middletown, Ohio then went on to get his undergraduate degree from Harvard University in Mathematics and a law degree from Harvard Law School. He served in the US Army in the division of Biometrics at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. After the Army, he was a Systems Analyst at the Honeywell Corporation in Boston and then a lawyer for Burroughs Corporation in Detroit.  For the next thirty-five years he was an appellate attorney for Smith Haughey Rice & Roegge in Grand Rapids, MI. He was an extremely caring and thoughtful father who dedicated his life to working hard to provide for his family.  He was an avid reader with an extreme passion for learning.  He loved working on calculus problems, kayaking, studying foreign languages, travelling in Europe, cooking, biking long distances and he had a special affection for fountain pens, Swiss Army knives, calculators and maps.  Lance is preceded in death by his parents and his second wife, Sarah Johnson Mather.  He is survived by his daughters Christine Elizabeth of Chicago, IL and Caroline Alexandra Doyle, and Caroline's three children and his grandchildren, David Patrick, Claudia Clare, and Evelyn Elizabeth all of Arlington, VA.  Lance is also survived by his loving and caring first wife, Cynthia who was a friend until the end, and Christine's English Bulldog, Waffles. There will be a private burial on June 7 and a special happy hour that afternoon. If you were a friend of Lance's and/or the family and do not get an email from us or his friends in the next few days, and would like to attend the happy hour, please email chrisemather@gmail.com as all friends are welcome.  In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to the American Cancer Society , as cancer is what took his second wife from him and it's a disease that has negatively impacted each and every one of us in one way or another.

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