Willard E. Mathers
Inducted 2024
Willard E. Mathers was born in Lititz, Pennsylvania on February 10, 1917. He graduated from Ithaca College with a Bachelor of Science degree. It is rumored Mathers helped pay for his college tuition by playing pocket billiards.
Mathers served in the United States Army during World War II. Pfc. Mathers (as reported in a 1944 publication) was noted as being from Herkimer, NY. He was a member of the 669th AAF Band, West Point when that group was part of the US Army documentary film The Liberation of Rome.
Willard Mathers’ career as a music educator and orchestral director spanned a period of forty some years primarily concentrated in the Central New York area in the Herkimer, Utica, Rome and Cazenovia school districts.
Under his direction, the Rome Free Academy orchestra participated in annual State Music Festivals in which they competed at Grade 5 level, (one of the most difficult levels of music) and received an A (the highest possible rating). One such rating in 1964, earned the RFA group a performance opportunity at the World’s Fair in New York City.
Mathers was the principal bassist with both the Utica Symphony and the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra playing with the Syracuse group for ten years. He also directed the Con Amore Orchestra in Utica and was associated with the Lake Placid Center Orchestra and the Utica Opera Guild where he was responsible for productions of Giacomo Puccini’s Il Tabarro and Gianni Schicci. He was a versatile musician who played trombone and string bass, conducted orchestras and arranged music appropriate for student level performances.
During the period from 1962 through1966 Willard Mathers served as an integral part of the music department for the Rome City School District where he inspired and influenced several students in their early professional careers in the arts.
Willard Mathers had a special interest and love of the Adirondack Mountains. Along with his wife and family, he enjoyed Summers at their camp near Limekiln Lake in Inlet, NY. He died March 20,1982 in Syracuse, NY and is buried in Saint John’s Cemetery in Newport, NY.