As a student, Matusow (1917–?) was an anti-war activist and member of the American Student Union. She entered the University of Minnesota in 1940 and having sought recognition for a Marxist club without success, was thus included on Chase’s lists of subversives. She took time off from her studies to unionize hotel maids for Local 665 of the Hotel and Restaurant Worker Union, and supported other unionizing efforts. She eventually completed a degree in public health nursing. She is included in the Minnesota Historical Society’s Twentieth Century Radicalism in Minnesota Oral History Project.