Matthew Thomas Mohr

Matthew Thomas Mohr, age 57, died peacefully at his home in Dublin, Ohio, surrounded by his loving family, on April 11, 2025. He was born in Columbus, Ohio, on August 26, 1967, son of Thomas and Sandra Mohr (née De Atley). Matthew cherished the memories of his formative years spent in Hudson, Ohio, and graduated from Hudson High School in 1986.

Matthew earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Bowling Green State University in 1990 and a Master of Fine Arts in Design and Technology from Parsons School of Design in 2003. On September 23, 2000, Matthew married Stephanie West. The newly-wed Mohr’s spent the next 25 years on an adventure-filled journey together that extended from Cleveland, OH, to Jersey City, NJ before finding their long-time home in a quaint Columbus suburb in 2011. Dublin, Ohio is where Matthew and Stephanie, along with their daughters, Beatrice and Adeline, have thrived in its loving community.

A life-long artist and designer, Matthew spent nearly a decade living and working in Cleveland where he owned a website design business for many years. He spent the following decade living and working in the New York City area where he most notably designed an interactive display that served as a focal point for visitors entering the Samsung Experience store, in the Time-Warner building at Columbus Circle.

In 2011, he was recruited back to Ohio to join the faculty of Columbus College of Art & Design, where he quickly became a respected faculty member, earning full faculty status before being conferred professor emeritus status upon retirement in 2024. During his 13-year tenure at CCAD, Matthew was celebrated by colleagues and former students alike for both challenging and encouraging students. He deeply valued the relationships he built with his students in the classroom and celebrated their professional design accomplishments once they graduated and joined the workforce.

In recent years, in addition to full-time teaching, Matthew continued to foster his love for design; he worked on various public art installations around the city and held a seat on the Columbus Arts Commission.

In 2017, Matthew's As We Are public art installation made its debut at the Greater Columbus Convention Center. The large scale interactive digital sculpture has proven to be a popular attraction with more than 100,000 subjects adding their portraits to the As We Are image collection. The piece unveils humanity’s beauty by showing both our differences and our sameness work in harmony; it is dedicated to honoring diversity and is a monument to everyone. The exhibit has garnered national and international accolades. Matthew went on to design a solar powered kinetic sculpture series called Lightning Sprites, which was displayed at the Dublin Arts Council in 2021. In late 2024, he exhibited a new piece in the Lightning Sprites series at the Beeler Gallery at CCAD called Dwelling.

Matthew was also an accomplished musician. He created the band, S Hotel, in the 1990's after writing and performing with the band, Opiate of the Masses, as a Bowling Green undergraduate student. His love and appreciation for music spanned multiple genres and he continued to enjoy live, mostly indie rock, shows up until the very end.

An avid collector of things, Matthew was often described as an old soul. He surrounded himself and his family with an eclectic collection of books, records, instruments, beautifully framed artwork, black and white photography and found objects. He delighted in his solar powered toy collection. He also loved cars, both classic and new, and never missed a vintage car show or a chance to see an Indycar race, but he was happiest tooling around town in his Volvo station wagon with his personalized WOND3R license plate.

A terminal brain cancer diagnosis in 2023 cut short Matthew's artistic pursuits and teaching career. During his nearly 26-month fierce battle with glioblastoma, Matthew never lost his sense of humor, his kind and sensitive demeanor, nor his wonder-filled appreciation for life and nature. His passion for art, design and music burned brightly to the end, as did his dedication to his wife and daughters. Matthew’s photography of “his girls”, the loves of his life and his most favorite subjects, adorns their house and will serve as a source of comfort and joy for generations to come. His daughters were his greatest source of pride, joy and inspiration and in turn he was an excellent father- loving, patient, devoted and always encouraging a sense of individuality and wonder. Sharing his many passions with an enormous circle of family, lifelong friends, colleagues, collaborators and former classmates and students placed him at the gravitational center of many friend groups who adored him. This is a role Matthew first began to develop as a devoted big brother to his two younger siblings.

Matthew will be dearly missed by all who knew and loved him. His rich legacy will endure through his deep relationships and his unique and groundbreaking art and design.

He is survived by his wife, Stephanie, and daughters, Beatrice and Adeline, all of Dublin, OH; father, Thomas Mohr of Pickerington, OH; brother, Michael (Karri) Mohr of Richmond, VA; sister, Erin (Nālani Santiago) Mohr of Los Angeles, CA; niece, Lily Mohr, and nephew, Thomas Mohr of Richmond, VA; beloved aunt, Kathy Alden of Upper Arlington, OH; and dozens of dear to his heart cousins, sisters-in-law, brothers-in-law, nieces-in-law, nephews-in-law and great-nieces and nephews-in-law, in addition to hundreds of lifelong friends and his loving and faithful canine companion, Lady Charlotte (aka Charlie) Mohr.

Matthew was preceded in death by his mother, Sandra Mohr, in 2015, his maternal and paternal grandparents and by many loved aunts and uncles over the years.

Friends are welcome to attend a viewing on Monday, April 21, from 4-8 p.m. at SCHOEDINGER DUBLIN, 5980 PERIMETER DRIVE, DUBLIN, OH. A funeral service will be held at the same location the following day, April 22 at 2 p.m. Expressions of sympathy may be made to the family at www.Schoedinger.com.

Higher education was important to Matthew. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Mohr College Fund to help ensure his daughters can follow their professional passions in life.