A Cheerful Giver

Matel “Mat” Dawson has worked for Ford Motor Co. in Dearborn, Mich., for 59 years and could have retired long ago. But the 78-year-old is still hard at work, driving a forklift, soaking up as much overtime as possible and making around $100,000 a year. Just so he can give most of it away. With a $200,000 donation to Wayne State University in Detroit on Tuesday, Dawson, who completed only the seventh grade and lives a modest life, now has donated more than $1 million to schools and charities since 1994. “I get joy, happiness out of this,” he said at a news conference. “I can go home and sleep good. … I was raised like that, to help others. I have more than enough myself.”