Matt Garrison ’99, Bond #1630

The Early Years

Matt was born in 1976 in Greenville, Ohio … a sleepy little town on the western border, only a few miles from Indiana. His father, Jerry, is a civil engineer and commutes each day to Columbus. His mother, Paulette, is retired from a career as a child center director. They still maintain a home in Greenville. If Greenville, Ohio rings a “bell” with you Beta lore experts, it is also the final resting place for Pater Knox.

Golf, baseball and basketball occupied much of Matt’s time as he was an active, very good student in the Greenville public school system. Following his graduation from high school in 1995, he was recruited by Ohio Wesleyan.

Ohio Wesleyan

Matt was recruited to play golf at OWU by the golf coach, Matt Byers, who had recently replaced the longtime coach Dick Gordin. As important to his decision to go to OWU was the school’s award of an academic scholarship. Tuition at the time was about $25,000, so the scholarship was critical to his decision. In addition, his visits to Delaware proved to be very amicable to him and so, in the fall of 1995, Matt was off to begin his student life at OWU.

Early days presented Matt with what seemed like a never-ending number of things to do. In the beginning fraternity open houses were almost every night. Students and new friends often met for lunch or dinner at Hamilton Williams. His roommates were Matt Jakubowski ’99 and Ken Bagstad ’99 … both classmates and Beta pledges. Both have remained close friends and they remain in close contact.

Matt J lives in Hoboken, NJ and works in urban planning in NY City. He received his Master’s degree in urban planning at the U of Pennsylvania. Ken lives in Burlington, VT and is an environmental economist for the US Geological Survey. Ken recently received his PhD at the U of VT.

Matt G majored in English and Accounting at OWU. Professors Cliff Cook in Accounting and Richard Spall in History were both outstanding teachers and of significant help to Matt.

Professor Cook had worked for years as a CPA and his real life experiences he shared with students were very helpful. Spall’s British History course was most memorable to Matt.

Matt played golf for two years, and had a very commendable low score of 78. However, as a result of experimenting with a different swing, he lost distance and struggled to be competitive. Golf was over and his concentrations were then on academics and Beta Theta Pi.

Pledging Beta

Early on, Matt met a couple of older baseball players … Brad Chelton ’98 and Ramsy Mahjoub ’98, both members of Beta Theta Pi. They soon recruited all three newcomers — Matt G., Matt J., and Ken B. — and Beta was the better off for their foresight as all three became active leaders in Theta chapter.

Theta chapter proved to be a positive, warm experience for Matt, and has provided lasting friendships. While in school, his memories include a lot of interest in sports, TV, intramurals and varsity. The house was full of players … baseball, football, track, lacrosse, golf, etc.

His big brother was senior Paul Snyder, who was also on the golf team. Special memories include pledging, being called to the house late at night for some pledge “training”. A highlight was the traditional kidnapping of an upper classman … in this case it was Tom Shannon ’97. Tom was taken to Greenville, of all places, where a mandatory visit was paid to Pater Knox’s grave.

As an upper classman, Matt enjoyed recruiting younger men to Beta. These included Matt Brown ’00, Josh Pretzer ’99, Trevor Warren ’00, Joe Palmer ’00 and Jeff Beaudry ’01 to name a few.

Before he knew it, the four years at OWU were over and with graduation in 1999, it was time to move on to the “real” world.

After OWU … Marriage, Family and Career

Early on, his career began with Deloite & Touche which took him to Columbus, where he and his family still live. After D & T, in June ’03, he joined Northwestern Mutual performing financial planning advice to their customers. Leaving Northwestern in ’06, Matt moved on to his present employer, Mettler-Toledo, as financial consolidation manager. Their main products are precision measuring devices and they have offices in 50 countries worldwide — thus the need for significant expertise in consolidating financial records. Their headquarters are in Columbus.

Amy Kagey and Matt were high school sweethearts back in their days in Greenville. A short split occurred when Matt came to OWU and Amy went to Miami. Their paths crossed again during Matt’s sophomore year, and following her graduation from Miami in May, 2000, they were married. They are the proud parents of two sons, Drew born in March ’05 and Alexander born in January ’08. Amy is a 1st grade teacher at Stevenson Elementary in Grandview Heights.

Matt enjoys relaxed golfing with Drew at Worthington Hills CC, and Amy enjoys scrap booking in her spare time. They enjoyed Hilton Head vacationing in 09, reading, following OSU sports. They share tickets for the Columbus Blue Jackets (pro hockey) with Matt Brown ’00 and Trevor Warren ’00.

The Garrison’s reside at 865 Clubview Blvd., South Columbus, Ohio 43235, and can be reached at (614) 743-6947 or email matt.garrison@mt.com.

Matt has always been a proud and active Beta … as an undergraduate and now as an alum. We all say to Matt, we are proud to have you as a brother and “thank God you are a Beta”.