Biography
John Terry Mathers, formerly of the Iowa State College Class of 1920, enlisted inot the Navy on April 21, 1917. He was sent to the Great Lake Training Station in Illinois. He later graduated from the U.S. Naval Radio School at Harvard University on December 15, 1917. After finishing the course, he was tranferred to the USS Kansas, then to an armed guard receiving ship at Norfolk, Virginia.
He was later stationed on the SS Lake City as a wireless operator. He drowned after SS Lake City collided with the oil tanker James McGee off of Key West, Florida on October 3, 1918.
He was the son of Mrs. L. E. Mathers and grew up in Washington, Iowa.