Longtime Smith champion dies at 84

U.S. Army veteran and educator Joseph Guy Mattingly Jr., a professor emeritus and longtime undergraduate director at the Smith School, died May 17, 2014, at his home in Annandale, Va. He was 84.

“Joe was a special person who had an affinity for undergraduate students and their needs,” said former Smith School Dean Rudy Lamone, who hired Mattingly as a faculty member in 1972 and quickly appointed him as Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Studies. “He would meet with students who were angry or frustrated, and they would come out of his office smiling. He was able to calm them down and point them in positive directions.”

Mattingly was born March 24, 1930, in Kentucky and joined the Army right out of high school in 1948. He served for the next 22 years as a Transportation Corps officer in Germany, South Korea, Vietnam and other locations, retiring as a lieutenant colonel in 1970.

“He sacrificed much to provide dedicated service to our nation by tackling huge logistics challenges for the military all over the world,” said Tom Corsi, the Michelle E. Smith Professor of Logistics and Co-Director of the Supply Chain Management Center at the Smith School. “Yet he never let his military obligations diminish his dedication to his family, which remained constant throughout his life.”

Mattingly’s first connection to the University of Maryland came in 1952 during his service in Germany, when he enrolled in an overseas program. He eventually became a triple alumnus of the university, earning a Bachelor of Science in 1958, an MBA in 1966 and Doctor of Business Administration in 1979.

The Smith School honored Mattingly with the Dean’s Lifetime Service Award in 2001. By the time Mattingly retired as a lecturer that same year, his affiliation with the school had spanned nearly 40 years.