Mathias H. Heck, Jr.

Mat Heck literally grew up in a prosecutor’s office and with NDAA. And there never was any question about where he was headed, even when he was in elementary school. He was going to be a prosecutor and he was going to join NDAA.

As a young boy, Mat—formally Mathias H. Heck, Jr.—spent Saturdays in his father’s office manning the switchboard, following his father around and talking to the prosecutors. His father, Mathias H. Heck, Sr., was prosecuting attorney of Montgomery County, Ohio, which includes the city of Dayton. Eventually young Mat would hold that job.

“My father was very active in NDAA and for a time was Ohio state director of NDAA,” Heck says, “and I can still remember how our family—my father and mother, my brother Tom, who’s now a surgeon, and me—would spend our summer vacations driving to the NDAA summer conferences.”

All in the Family—This photo was taken in July 1958, at the summer conference of the National Association of County and Prosecuting Attorneys (NACPA), predecessor of NDAA. From left to right: Thomas A. Heck, then six years old, now a surgeon in Dayton, Ohio; John F. Malone, then an inspector with the FBI and FBI liaison to NACPA; Mathias H. Heck. Jr., then 10 years old and now prosecuting attorney for Montgomery County (Dayton), Ohio; and Mathias H. Heck, Sr., prosecuting attorney for Montgomery County from 1944 to 1960 and one of the early members and state directors of NDAA. Photo courtesy Mathias H. (Mat) Heck, Jr.

It was often a crowded car, for as Heck recalls, “My dad would often bring his chief assistant to those conferences and he’d ride with us. I can remember going to places all over the country, like Boston, Milwaukee and Wyoming and meeting DAs like Bob Miller of Reno, who later became governor of Nevada; Frank Moss of Idaho, who later became a U.S. senator; and the DAs of New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. I was awed.”

There was often another “traveler” in the Heck family automobile: a large brass spittoon that was part of an informal NDAA custom at the time. The state that had the largest number of members at the summer conference was awarded the spittoon for the ensuing year. Ohio was frequently the winner. There is no record of what Mrs. Heck, Sr. thought of this custom.

When Mat Heck was in high school, and after his father had retired and gone into private practice, Mat worked part-time for his father’s successor, Lee Falke, who had been one of the elder Heck’s assistants and had been urged by him to run for the top job. “I was just a go-fer,” Mat Heck says, “running errands, picking up lunch and delivering exhibits to court. I did the same thing when I was in college (Marquette University), and after I got into law school (Georgetown University) I came back and clerked for Lee Falke, who served as NDAA president (1978-79).”

After graduation from law school, Mat went to work with his father in private practice (Heck & Heck Co. L.P.A) while serving as an assistant prosecuting attorney under Lee Falke, a dual role that is permissible under Ohio law. During the 20 years he worked for Falke, Heck rose from running errands to becoming chief trial counsel, trying all the death penalty cases. When Mat became prosecuting attorney in 1992, he made it office policy that all his prosecutors must be full-time.

Today, Mat Heck, a past vice president and board member of NDAA, oversees a staff of 96 attorneys, nine investigators and 100 support personnel, in a demographically diverse jurisdiction of approximately 600,000. Dayton, the county’s core city, will forever be known as the birthplace of aviation because it’s the hometown of the Wright brothers. It is largely blue collar/manufacturing, and is surrounded by rural areas. Mat Heck and his family—his wife Cynthia, a civil attorney; and their children Tiffany and Matthew—live in one of those rural areas, where Heck operates a 200-acre farm, raising beef cattle and grain crops, including corn and soybeans.

“I have a farm manager and some help,” he says, “but I’m still involved with it because we live there and we’ve enjoyed it and I think it’s important. We raised our children on the farm, where they’ve had responsibilities, duties and jobs. Farm life tends to keep kids out of trouble.”

Like any large city, Dayton has its share of homicides, sexual assaults, burglaries and robberies. Situated at the intersection of two major interstate highways, I-75 and I-70, and thus in the center of an apparent drug-running corridor extending from Detroit to Florida and from the west to the east coast, it also experiences an especially large number of drug-related offenses.

As a recognized community leader, Heck says he advocates “a no-nonsense approach to violent crime, initiating and supporting domestic violence and child abuse programs; not only prosecuting offenders but counseling victims and assisting in multi-disciplinary approaches.”

Despite his many responsibilities, Heck still tries cases because, he says, “I enjoy it and it has been my background.”

“I love this job,” he says unabashedly. “I’ve lived here my entire life and worked in this office my entire professional life. I love helping make our community safe, giving back to the community, and always being able to look in the mirror and be proud of what we do as prosecutors.

“I consider it an honor to be a member of NDAA and to be active in the association. It’s just so nice to have members always ready and willing to assist a fellow prosecutor, regardless of the location and size of their offices. They’re always there to help you, to share their experience and provide you with assistance and answers to the questions you may have. It’s a good feeling.”

During the 11 years that Mat Heck has been prosecuting attorney, he has received many accolades. This year he was named one of Dayton’s most influential persons by the Dayton Business Journal. But in conversation it’s clear that aside from his family, he’s proudest of his staff and of being named, in 2002, a Distinguished Alumnus of Chaminade-Julienne Catholic High School. In presenting Mat Heck (Class of 1965) with the award, Judge Barbara Gorman, president of the school’s board of trustees said:

“Mat embodies the best characteristics of a Chaminade graduate: hard-working, energetic, kind and thoughtful. As the prosecuting attorney of Montgomery County, he willingly and enthusiastically accepts his responsibility to represent victims of crimes, helping those who otherwise cannot help themselves.”

Profile's Web Site

Mat Heck's Most Memorable Case

Previous Profiles