Foil: 7 Panel: 1 Column: 2 Line: 42

Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:

LCDR Thomas Stanhope Matthews, Jr. (Ret.) was a lifelong aviation enthusiast. A 1943 Gamer High School (NC) graduate where he was class president, Stanhope joined the Naval Aviation Cadet program that summer. The following year he earned his gold wings and commission as a Navy Fighter Pilot.

While in the Navy, Stanhope mastered several fighters including Wildcats, Bearcats, and Crusaders but none more beloved to him than the infamous F6F Hellcat. It was in this aircraft that Stanhope found his flying soul and melded as one with the machine he more thought than flew. It infected his being with such a wondrous sense of freedom that it spawned a 60-year flying career, carrying Stanhope on its wing up until his death in July 2001.

A twenty-year Naval Reserves veteran, his legacy lives in his children and countless others he touched over 35 years of faithful service in both Senior and Cadet Civil Air Patrol, where he was a renowned mentor to our nation's fledgling aviators.

An icon whose soul soars now where only angels tread, we dedicate this small memorial in testament to his memory.