The career of alumni author Jeffrey J. Matthews parallels that of his subject, Alanson B. Houghton, in that both left successful business-world lives for the public sector. Matthews went from banker to teacher; Houghton from industrialist to ambassador. Although Matthews has not yet had the international impact that Houghton did, his life is just as interesting.
UNLV professor Andy Fry, who mentored Matthews for his master’s degree in history, says his former pupil had a successful banking career, but one day came to Fry’s office, willing to give it up because he wanted to be a historian. He was particularly interested in foreign relations, Fry’s specialty.
The M.A. was completed in 1990 and Matthews went on to study the history of U.S. foreign relations at the University of Kentucky, where he earned a doctorate. He combined his business and history backgrounds and is now an associate professor in crossdisciplinary business at the University of Puget Sound, teaching courses in leadership, international business, and history.
Houghton, the subject of Matthews’ first book, was ambassador to both Germany and Great Britain during the 1920s. One reviewer called Houghton “arguably the most influential ambassador during the interwar period.” Matthews says that Houghton’s biography helps “explain the larger story of America’s rise as a dominant global power before and after the first world war.” The book is part of the series Biographies in American Foreign Policy edited by Fry.
Houghton is known not only for his service as ambassador, but also because he became highly critical of the foreign policies of the Harding-Coolidge era; that criticism is the major thrust of Matthews’ book.
Matthews continues to combine his banking background with history, and is working on a new book about the “much neglected history of black business leadership in the United States.”
