Professor of Oceanography at SPC for 49 years teaching Biology, Oceanography, and Scuba. Retired June 2003, now Adjunct Professor on Clearwater Campus.  Dr. Mathews and a local motel owner founded the Clearwater Marine Aquarium in 1972 converting an old sewage plant into a marine science center on Clearwater beach. In that same year Dr. Mathews started the Pinellas County Artificial Reef program that built artificial reefs off Pinellas County for 33 years. He has taught scuba at SPC for 45 years, with over 1500 students being certified. In 2010  Dr. Mathews formed a non-profit corporation called Reef Monitoring Inc. to train sport divers to conduct monitoring of our local natural and artificial reef fish and invertebrate populations.
Reef Monitoring Inc. is now sponsoring artificial reef clean ups, lionfish round-ups, and monthly fish counts on natural and artificial reefs in the Gulf.  Dr. Mathews is the faculty advisor for the SPS Underwater research Society (scuba club).

Now teaching oceanography labs, Open Water Scuba, and Advanced Scuba.