After a 23-year career as a physics professor, he was lost at sea and presumed drowned during a circumnavigation attempt with his wife Jean in 1979.
Mathews received a Fulbright Scholarship, and moved with Charlotte to England for his year of study at the University of Cambridge.
[7] In 1964, Mathews and his Caltech contemporary, Dr. Robert Walker, co-authored and published Mathematical Methods of Physics,[8] which received positive reviews[9][10][11] and remains a widely used college textbook in 2014.
In June 1979, Mathews and his wife Jean left Marina del Rey, California, aboard their 34-foot yacht Drambuie II to begin a planned 12-month circumnavigation attempt.
The pair departed Perth, Australia in November 1979, heading westward towards Durban, South Africa.
On December 23, 1979, the Drambuie sailed into the path of Cyclone Claudette,[19] a major storm with recorded wind gusts of over 150 knots.