Matthew Alan Shugars, 51, died January 20, 2026 in his West Reading residence.<\/p>\n
Born April 30, 1974, in Reading, he was a son of Robert F. and Christine S. (Dziki) Shugars of Muhlenberg Township.<\/p>\n
A 1992 graduate of Muhlenberg High School, Matthew also attended Penn State University and Lebanon Valley College.<\/p>\n
He was employed as a police officer for 32 years, retiring in 2025 from Cumru Township Police Department.\u00a0 His other places of employment include DEA in Allentown, where he worked for six years; and part-time with Laureldale, Mohnton, and Birdsboro police departments. He was also assigned to the Berks County Major Crime Task Force and Berks County Narcotics Team.<\/p>\n
Matthew was honored with the Gallantry Star Medal for his distinguished act of bravery in the apprehension of a dangerous individual who posed a threat to the community.\u00a0 He was also recognized for safely locating a citizen with Alzheimer\u2019s disease who had wandered off.\u00a0 He truly loved what he did, and it showed.<\/p>\n
A player of basketball, football, and baseball, Matthew was named Outstanding Athlete of the Year at Muhlenberg High School.\u00a0 He was the junior high football coach for Wilson School District for 4 years; and was proud to say his team won the junior high championship game.<\/p>\n
Matthew enjoyed restoring failing plants and unique recycling of furniture.<\/p>\n
Surviving, in addition to his parents, is his brother, Nathan L. Shugars; his aunt and Godmother, Cynthia A. Snyder, and her son, Christopher Lambi.<\/p>\n
Matthew was preceded in death by his uncle and Godfather, Joseph E. Dziki, Jr.<\/p>\n
A Prayer Service will be held Friday, January 30, 2026 at 11 a.m. at Stitzel Family Funeral Homes & Crematory, Inc., 3300 Kutztown Road, Laureldale.\u00a0 A visitation will be held from 10-11.\u00a0 Burial will follow at Gethsemane Cemetery.<\/p>\n
For online condolences, visit www.StitzelFamilyFunerealHomes.com.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n To send flowers<\/a>
\n to the family or plant a tree<\/a>
\n in memory of Matthew A. Shugars, please visit our floral store.<\/a>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Matthew Alan Shugars, 51, died January 20, 2026 in his West Reading residence. Born April 30, 1974, in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3819,46701,3026,128,130,129],"class_list":["post-95064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-death-notice","tag-matthew-a-shugars-obituary","tag-obituaries","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}