Sandra Matteucci, a longtime, influential member of ARCS Phoenix Chapter and National leadership, passed away on February 18, 2026. She was 87 years old and surrounded by those who loved her.
Sandra was very involved with ARCS at the local and national levels, along with her daughter Anna Maria Matteucci. Their contributions to ARCS, their closeness, friendliness, and hosting abilities made them particularly well known within the organization and the community. Sandra supported 28 Scholars over the years as a Phoenix Chapter member.
Sandra joined ARCS in 1991. She was honored in June 2023 with ARCS’s first-ever Luminary Award, the highest recognition of service to ARCS National. Her acceptance of the award was part of ARCS’s 65th anniversary celebration. It was noted then that Sandra was one of a handful of national leaders whose “foresight and ground-breaking efforts resulted in the establishment of the corpus of the ARCS National Endowment.” Sandra continued as a donor to the endowment.
Longtime ARCS member Donna Casey met Sandra in 2000. They worked on ARCS projects together, and Casey saw her very recently during the national board meeting in Arizona.
“Sandra was unbelievably generous to ARCS Phoenix and ARCS National,” Casey says, also noting that “Sandra hosted fun, sometimes themed meetings that were well attended. Sandra could laugh about anything.”
Lynne Brickner, another ARCS member, also remembers Sandra.
“At the beginning of my second year as National President, Sandra invited me to meet the 2016-2017 ARCS Foundation Phoenix Chapter Board of Directors at its first meeting of the year so that the Phoenix Board members could better understand the relationship between ARCS National and ARCS Phoenix Chapter,” she says.
Brickner reminisces about that first meeting fondly.
“The Phoenix Chapter Board members began their year with their first meeting at the ARCS Phoenix Clubhouse (Sandra’s home) in late August – the hottest time of the year in the Sonoran Desert – and everyone showed up,” she explains.
She says that the event proved that Sandra was a beloved member.
“That showed me the commitment of the Phoenix Board members and the importance of cultivating a close relationship between National and the Phoenix Chapter, all because of Sandra’s insight and skill in getting people together as a leader of National and of the Phoenix Chapter,” Brickner says. “I learned a lot from that trip to Phoenix, including the lesson that there won’t be another Sandra!”
Sandra’s family is planning a celebration for her on a date to be announced.
Read more about Sandra Matteucci: https://www.lagronefuneralchapels.com/obituaries/alice-sandra-matteucci?fbclid=IwY2xjawQLAB1leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETI3S3M5azBYRENEekNzZjZtc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHkzUAiohjMHW9QoIKIT0HIQf9QpyLaA2g9vK3HaIgeXTgZs46GMHHHmiU362_aem_mb0-ybYxb7KQMlFPPKlGjg
