Principal of Inglewood’s Morningside High Dies

Mallory L. Matthews, who in February took over as acting principal of Inglewood’s troubled Morningside High School, died Wednesday morning after a long illness.

Matthews, 37, had been hospitalized since Sept. 4, when he collapsed during a parents’ orientation meeting at Morningside. District officials said family members told them Matthews died of a heart attack at Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital at 8 a.m.

Family members could not be reached for comment, and hospital officials said the family had requested them not to comment.

Matthews was named acting principal of Morningside in February after the previous principal, Art Murray, was forced out of the job by district administrators, who held him responsible for problems during last year’s fall semester.

At that time, Morningside was disrupted by scheduling difficulties that kept hundreds of students out of class and by student walkouts to protest campus conditions.

“Education has lost a coming star,” said former Inglewood High School Principal Lawrence Freeman, who worked with Matthews for about five years. “Matthews cared a lot. He got along well with students. He was quite a kid.”

Maurice Wiley, the district’s spokesman, called Matthews “a very positive force (who) improved the condition of our students.”

Matthews was an assistant principal under Freeman at Inglewood High from 1985 until he was chosen by the school board to replace Murray in February.

Before that, Matthews had been an assistant principal at Morningside from 1981 to ’85 and a coordinator of adult education and a summer principal there. He entered the district in 1979 as a social studies teacher at Inglewood High.

Matthews was a graduate of Serra High School in Gardena and UCLA. He later earned a master’s degree in education from Pepperdine University.

District officials gave no word Wednesday on a replacement for Matthews at Morningside. Assistant Principal Ed Brownley has been filling in for Matthews since he entered the hospital; Brownley, however, has not been named acting principal.