Derwin Gowan
Telegraph-Journal
BACK BAY - Nearly 600 people crowded into Sea
View Full Gospel Church in Back Bay to say goodbye
to Burton Lester Matheson.
The mourners included a large contingent of
retired and still working Saint John police officers
who remember Matheson as a colleague on the force
before a heart attack forced him to retire at 45.
He died unexpectedly of pneumonia in the Saint
John Regional Hospital on Jan. 7 at the age of 70,
his only child, Lance Matheson, said Wednesday.
Burton Matheson is also survived by his wife,
Ruth L. Matheson.
Following her husband's heart attack, she worked
for 23 years at Connors Bros. Ltd. sardine packers,
Lance Matheson said.
"Mother retired five years ago and they've been
inseparable ever since," the son said.
Burton Matheson, a Back Bay native who lived in
St. George at the time of his death, served 16 years
on the Saint John Police Force from 1967 to 1983,
including about two years with the former mounted
patrol at Rockwood Park.
"When he was a kid around Back Bay he would hang
around Eddy Leavitt and his horses," Lance Matheson
said.
Matheson loved horses and dogs, making it natural
for him to apply to join the mounted patrol the
Saint John Police Force maintained at Rockwood Park
from about 1967 to -1994.
The mounted patrol "was perfect for him with his
personality," Saint John Police Sgt. Pat Bonner
said.
"He was exemplary in every way," said Rev. James
Fudge, the retired Saint John police detective who
conducted the funeral. "Burt Matheson was one of the
best."
He was born at Back Bay, a son of Nellie (Leslie)
and the late Gerald Matheson. As a young man he
worked as a foreman at Connors Bros. before moving
to Saint John.
He drove a city bus for about four months before
getting on the police force, his son said.
Burton Matheson did different jobs as a police
constable, including regular patrol and traffic
control as well as the mounted patrol.
Lance was 22 and married in 1981 when his
father's life changed during a vacation trip.
"He flew out to Ontario and had a heart attack,"
Lance said.
He and Ruth returned to Blacks Harbour. They
moved to St. Stephen three years ago, but moved to
South Park mini-home park in St. George after a
year.
The things he gave up following the heart attack
included his motorcycle. He owned four of them over
the years.
Burton Matheson belonged to Gateway Cathedral
Pentecostal Church in St. Stephen.
Pastors Gordon Walsh from Gateway Cathedral and
Gordon Cooke Jr. from Sea View Full Gospel Church
assisted at the funeral.
Matheson left instructions that the funeral
should not last more than 30 minutes with no long
eulogy, Fudge said.
"He didn't want any flowers or haloes or things
like that," Fudge said.
"A lovely man, a very simple man, is what he
was," Bonner said. "I wish we had more like him."
