PITTSBURGH, July 24 /EMWNews/ -- Matthews International

Corporation (Nasdaq: MATW) announced that Katherine E. Dietze was elected

today to the Company's Board of Directors.



    Ms. Dietze was Global Chief Operating Officer, Investment Banking

Division of Credit Suisse First Boston until her retirement in 2005. She

had also held the position of Managing Director, Investment Banking. Prior

to joining Credit Suisse First Boston in 1996, Ms. Dietze was a Managing

Director for Salomon Brothers Inc. In 2007, she was elected to the Board of

Directors of LaBranche & Co., Inc., a financial services firm. Ms. Dietze

received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brown University and graduated from

Columbia University with an M.B.A. in Finance and Marketing.



    Matthews International Corporation, headquartered in Pittsburgh,

Pennsylvania, is a designer, manufacturer and marketer principally of

memorialization products and brand solutions. Memorialization products

consist primarily of bronze memorials and other memorialization products,

caskets and cremation equipment for the cemetery and funeral home

industries. Brand solutions include graphics imaging products and services,

marking products, and merchandising solutions. The Company's products and

services include cast bronze memorials and other memorialization products;

caskets; cast and etched architectural products; cremation equipment and

cremation-related products; mausoleums; brand management, printing plates,

pre-press services and imaging services for the primary packaging and

corrugated industries; marking and coding equipment and consumables, and

industrial automation products for identifying, tracking and conveying

various consumer and industrial products, components and packaging

containers; and merchandising display systems and marketing and design

services.