Matthew Zwerling

Matthew Henry Zwerling passed away on March 24 after a long illness. He was born in Massachusetts on April 15, 1944. He grew up in the Bronx and Upper West Side of Manhattan. His grandparents were immigrants from Eastern Europe and his parents were involved in the progressive issues of their time. His father was an esteemed psychoanalyst and a pioneer of community psychiatry.

Mat lived a rich and varied life, characterized by his strong devotion to the struggle for civil rights and the right to full and fair representation of those unable to afford legal counsel.

Mat’s commitment to civil rights began in the 1960’s. After graduating from the University of Rochester in 1964, he joined other students and graduates in Mississippi Freedom Summer, a concerted effort to register black voters in a state where less than six percent of voting age African Americans were registered. It was courageous and dangerous work. Three of Mat’s fellow civil rights workers were murdered that summer in Mississippi. Mat’s experience had such an intense impact upon him that he committed himself to a career in law.

He attended Yale Law School and, after graduation, passed up more lucrative career opportunities to clerk for federal Judge J. Skelly Wright in Washington, D.C. Judge Wright was well known for his desegregation orders. Following his clerkship, Mat worked at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, where he represented indigent defendants in the D.C. trial courts.

After moving to San Francisco, Mat became the first director of the National

Lawyers Guild Grand Jury Project. At the time, activists in the anti-war movement were being targeted by the government, often through grand jury investigations. Under Mat’s leadership, the project created a manual for attorneys who represented witnesses called before grand juries. Project members also traveled around the country, training Guild members in grand jury practice.

Mat’s most lasting contribution to the cause of equal representation of indigents under the law was his work at the First District Appellate Project, a private, non-profit corporation in San Francisco. FDAP administers the appointed counsel system for the California Court of Appeal in the First Appellate District and provides expert back-up assistance to appointed attorneys in a joint effort to elevate the quality of indigent appellate representation.

Mat was recruited by his long-time friend, Bob Calhoun, in 1985 to help create FDAP and became

FDAP’s first assistant director. He became the Executive Director in 1998. He served as Director for 14 years until his retirement. During his time at FDAP, Mat was an inspirational leader to his staff and panel attorney members, and he won the admiration of judges, attorneys and other legal professionals in the field.

Along with pursuing his commitment to social justice, Mat took every opportunity to spend time outdoors. Physical effort was a tonic to him. As a child, he loved team sports. As a young adult, he drove around Italy with a friend, took a cruise to Alaska with his parents, made maple syrup in New Hampshire and hung out at a fiddle festival in Weiser, Idaho. In later years, he preferred camping, hiking and climbing mountains on his own or with his family. He also persuaded many of his friends to join him in mountaineering, snowshoeing or camping by a remote mountain lake.

In the mid 1970’s Mat temporarily left the law to work as a zookeeper at the San Francisco Children’s Zoo. He loved encouraging visitors, especially children, to observe and interact with the animals.

Mat also loved music, particularly rock ‘n roll. He taught himself to play electric guitar and bass and played benefits and small clubs in the San Francisco Bay Area. He loved nothing better than to get people out on the dance floor enjoying themselves.

In San Francisco, Mat met Holly Veldhuis, and they married in 1984. They lived in Bernal Heights and enjoyed playing music, planning vacations in Tahoe and engaging in long, productive conversations. Mat was a devoted father to their son, Michael, and adored Theo and Clifford – his two grandsons.

We are planning a Memorial for Mat, but have not yet chosen the date. If you would like to know more about our plans, email us at zwerling_memorial@fdap. org