Philanthropic Forklift Driver Uplifts Through Giving
By Erik Lords

DETROIT
At age 80, Mat Dawson Jr. of Detroit is still active, is in good health and works the same full-time job he started 60 years ago. His spirits are high nearly every day, but he already knows exactly what he wants engraved on his tombstone: "Gone but not forgotten." Whenever Dawson "goes" — as he refers to death — the humble forklift driver who works at a Ford Motor Company plant in Dearborn, Mich., certainly won't be forgotten.
He will be remembered by dozens of college students who can afford to go to college because of his generosity. In the last decade, Dawson has donated more than $1.3 million to Wayne State University and to other higher education institutions to provide scholarships for students of all races. This semester he gave Wayne State $200,000, bringing his total gifts to the school to $632,000, and says he plans to give the university another $200,000 next school year. He has also given money to the United Negro College Fund ($240,000), Louisiana State University ($300,000) and the NAACP ($150,000).
Such philanthropic deeds are rare for a man of Dawson's financial means. He works for an hourly wage, drives a 1995 red Ford Escort and lives in a modest one-bedroom apartment.
Ted Sell, a 1997 Wayne State sociology graduate, says Dawson's scholarship money helped his transition from a career in auto parts design.
Sell arrived at Wayne State with about 50 credits he earned at Kalamazoo Valley Community College. While at Wayne State, he worked full time at Madison Design in Warren, Mich., where he designed automatic weld fixtures, the small parts needed to build cars. During school, Sell's usual school and workday went from 5 a.m. until 11 p.m. Monday through Thursday. "On weekends, I was pretty shut in my apartment studying," says Sell, 34.
It was worth it, says Sells, who now works for a state program helping foster children who have been abused or neglected. "I wanted to do more to help young people," he says. "The money (Dawson) so generously shared with me, has trickled down and helped more individuals. I probably wouldn't have the job I have now without his help."
Sonia Taggart, a single mother, will graduate from Wayne State next month with a degree in fashion merchandising and marketing. She says she would not be sporting a robe and mortarboard in a few weeks without Dawson's scholarship, which totaled $10,000 over four years — enough to cover much of her tuition.
"I would have been forced to go to school part time, and that would have been discouraging for a single mother," says Taggart.
Before meeting Dawson at a recent awards ceremony honoring him, she thought he was "a money machine — someone who would not miss the money he was giving away," Taggart says. "Then I found out what he does, where he works, and I think that's what really floors you about him. He's so humble."
When Taggart won the scholarship four years ago, her daughter Azuza — now 7 — was in preschool, and she needed the financial help more than ever. Dawson's huge heart inspired Taggart to be a better student.
"I felt like he was watching over me, and I made sure I spent the money very wisely," says Taggart, who saved and bought a used car to commute to class each day. "I thought about the fact that this man is a laborer, a blue-collar worker and is able to do that. It motivated me to do better."