The shoes made by Paul Mathews always fit. Mathews was an old-fashioned shoemaker, customers and craftsmen said. He would trace a foot, measure it and consider a customers' bunions or orthopedic corrections. The result was a shoe that was comfortable and creative.

Mathews, owner of the Cordwainer Shop in Deerfield, died Tuesday, five months after he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, said his daughter, Sara Mathews. He was 90.

"He just loved making shoes, helping people with foot problems; he loved traveling, every aspect of it," Sara Mathews said. "He was working 12-hour days right up until he was 90."

Mathews was born July 22, 1918, in Lexington, Mass., the son of Edward and Erna Mathews. Edward Mathews had done research on foot health and developed an idea for a shoe with a low heel and round toe, said Paul Mathews's wife, Molly Grant-Mathews. Paul Mathews had always been a talented artist, and after he completed just two years of high school, his father pulled him out of school to join the shoe business.

"He didn't believe schools taught you much, and he wanted my brother to work in the business," said Paul

Mathews's sister, Sally MacLean.

It was there that Paul Mathews began the work that he would continue throughout his life.

"My father invented the shoes. My brother made them a work of art," MacLean said. Mathews became the lead designer in his father's shop, running the workshop and learning the craft, Grant-Mathews said.

Mathews took a break from shoemaking to serve in the U.S. Army Air Forces as a captain and pilot during World War II. He enlisted in January 1942, right after the attack on Pearl Harbor, MacLean said, and flew 65 missions, mostly over Italy. He earned several medals, including the Distinguished Flying Cross and was a lead pilot at the Battle of Monte Cassino, when Allied forces attempted to seize Rome, according to his wife and sister.

While in the Air Force, Mathews wrote letters to MacLean and included poetry that he had written - some serious, some humorous. In Sardinia, he learned to play the accordion, then gave his accordion to MacLean when he returned. He came back from the service in 1945, MacLean said, and moved to Massachusetts. A few years later, he met and married his first wife, Geraldine, whose aunt had bought shoes from Mathews's father.

In the mid-1950s, Paul and Geraldine Mathews moved to Deerfield. According to Grant-Mathews, they were driving home from Maine when they passed Deerfield and fell in love with the town. Grant-Mathews said they stopped in an antiques shop and asked if there were any homes for sale. When the owner said his shop was for sale, Grant-Mathews said, "they drove home to Massachusetts, got $500 in cash, drove back, made a deposit and bought the house."

Paul and Geraldine Mathews had five children together. Robert Mathews, Susan Ulin, Sara Mathews and Gwendolyn Greenway all live in Deerfield, and James Mathews lives in Rhode Island.

Mathews always had eclectic interests - as a child, he loved Robin Hood and went through an archery phase, his sister said. He loved reading and writing poetry and was interested in world politics, his wife said.

But his passion was shoemaking, which he continued when he moved to New Hampshire. In 1968, he bought a 100-acre farm, which he later expanded by buying an additional 200 acres from two adjoining farms.

He built a shoemaking shop and also created an organic farm with horses, cows, pigs and chickens, not to mention cats and dogs, Sara Mathews said. He had gardens and orchards, growing fruits and vegetables. There was a sawmill on the property, and his shop was built with lumber that he and his sons cut down.

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