Dr. Florence Krenzler Matthews

Florence Krenzler Matthews, MD, passed away peacefully at the age of 104 on Sunday, August 13, 2023. She was born in Coal City, Illinois on 1/1/1919, but grew up in Cleveland. She loved learning all her life and excelled academically. She graduated from Glenville High School and earned a BS from the University of Michigan. During World War II, she married her high school sweetheart, Bernard Matthews. She worked multiple jobs to put him through medical school at the University of Cincinnati before putting herself through. She became the first woman intern at Mount Sinai Hospital in Cleveland, then went on to complete a psychiatric residency. Both she and Bernard became practicing psychiatrists in the Cleveland area. Dr. Matthews devoted herself largely to treating adolescents, both in private practice and at Juvenile Court. One of her proudest accomplishments was helping to create Woodruff Foundation which provides grants to nonprofit mental health organizations in Cuyahoga County. She also served as president of this foundation for several years. Dr. Matthews inspired her daughter, Brooke Wolf, MD and her granddaughter Lara Feldman, DO to become psychiatrists, perhaps the only 3 generations of women psychiatrists in the country. She also inspired her daughter, Laurel Matthews, MD, to become a physician and her granddaughter, Taryn Ponsky, LPCC, to become a mental health therapist.

Florence, with her husband, Bernard, and later with her daughter, Laurel, traveled the world, but she always spoke about how much she loved Cleveland. Florence loved people and they loved her. She found beauty in the simplest things and transmitted her love of beauty to others. She loved her garden, ballroom dancing, playing tennis and bridge, attending the Cleveland symphony, and going to Cleveland Browns and Michigan games. She is mourned by her 2 daughters, Brooke (James) Wolf, MD and Laurel Matthews, MD; by her 2 granddaughters, Lara (Marc) Feldman, DO, and Taryn (Zac) Ponsky, LPCC; and by her great grandchildren, Jordyn and Ethan Feldman and Jake and Austin Ponsky. Dr. Matthews was predeceased by her husband , Bernard,MD.,her son Dane (Dane (Lori Herman) Matthews and her brother . Alvin (Adeline) Krenzler Her infectious smile and warm, engaging presence will be missed by all who knew her. She did not wish to have a funeral. Contributions can be made in her honor to the Woodruff Foundation (woodruffgreatercle.org).