Julia Jones Matthews

The Julia Jones Matthews School of Population and Public Health is the sixth school of Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and named to honor Julia Jones Matthews. 

The footprint of Julia Jones Matthews' legendary philanthropy extends deep and wide across the environment and culture of Abilene. Portending this moment we celebrate today, Ms. Matthews long recognized the importance of healthcare. Over many years, she has magnanimously shared her considerable resources to address health needs in the Abilene community by supporting local healthcare institutions including Hendrick Health, West Texas Rehabilitation Center, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and others. 

Born in December 1918, much of Judy’s early life was spent in her childhood home on Abilene’s Alta Vista Hill, enjoying the company of her many childhood friends. During her youth, she developed a life-long appreciation of film and spent many afternoons watching the latest film in downtown Abilene’s Paramount Theatre. The pursuit of education led her to the East Coast in 1933. She attended the Miss Maderia boarding school in Virginia where she excelled both academically and athletically. After earning a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Massachusetts' Smith College in 1942, she returned home to Abilene. In 1942, she married Albany rancher John Matthews with whom she had five children, Joe, Jill, Watt, Matt and Kade.  

Dutiful service to others is a theme among Matthews family members. Judy’s grandfather, K.K. Legett, helped establish not one but two Abilene institutions of higher learning, Simmons and McMurry Colleges. They are known today as Hardin-Simmons University and McMurry University. Her mother, Ruth Legett Jones, was known as “the quiet philanthropist,” preferring to make charitable contributions under the veil of anonymity. Through her work with the Dodge Jones Foundation, which she established in 1954 with her mother and her sister, Edith Jones O’Donnell, Judy employed her family’s resources to improve the lives of others. 

The breadth of her generosity spans the arts, healthcare, education, animal rescue, the zoo and a host of other humanitarian causes.  Ms. Matthews is credited with initiating singlehandedly the revitalization of downtown Abilene in the 1980s. Using grants made through the Dodge Jones Foundation and her personal wealth, she preserved and restored several downtown landmarks, including the Historic Paramount Theater, the Grace Museum and downtown Abilene’s oldest building, the original Windsor Hotel. Dating back to 1890, the three-story brick Windsor building is now home to the Development Corporation of Abilene, Abilene’s economic development organization. DCOA’s residence in this historic landmark poignantly exemplifies the convergence of Abilene’s historic past, Ms. Matthews’ dreams for her hometown, and what is sure to be a prosperous future. Following a seed grant from the Dodge Jones Foundation, the Community Foundation of Abilene was chartered in 1985 and serves an ever-growing reminder of Ms. Matthews’ long-term vision for endowed philanthropy in Abilene.

Her forward-thinking approach to philanthropy provided the impetus for establishing the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center campus in Abilene. While she had no official academic connection to Texas Tech University, Ms. Matthews understood the profundity of establishing an institution of higher education in Abilene commissioned to train the next generation of nurses, pharmacists and public health administrators to address the unique healthcare needs of rural West Texas. Her family philanthropic contributions of more than $33 million provided the seminal cornerstone for Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Abilene. 

 In 2016, the Texas Senate adopted Senate Resolution 384 to memorialize Ms. Matthews and her 97 years of life. It described her as “A woman of vision, courage, and compassion, she gave unselfishly to others, and her graciousness, her remarkable philanthropic spirit, and her enthusiasm for living each day to the fullest were an inspiration to all who knew her and all who were privileged to share in her life.”  Julia Jones Matthews forever changed the landscape of Abilene. Over a lifetime of "anonymous" philanthropy, she rendered a tour de force for her hometown, quietly, exquisitely, selflessly. Her gracious spirit and her generous heart worked powerful and positive changes among legions throughout the Abilene community and beyond.