Richard Mattas – 50th Reunion Essay

Richard Mattas

Date of Death: 31-Dec-2016

College: Silliman

(Laurie Mattas submitted this memorial to her husband for the May/June 2017 Class Notes)

In 1965, Rich Mattas graduated from Morton West High School in Berwyn, Illinois, where he was an outstanding scholar and athlete and a member of their undefeated football team. He continued to play football at Yale, capping his career with the infamous Yale-Harvard game of 1968. After graduating from Yale in 1969 with a BA in physics, he continued his education at the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana, where he earned an MS and PhD from the Department of Metallurgical Engineering. He and his wife, Laurie (Loretta Urbaczewski), were married in Stratford, Connecticut, on June 27, 1970. Rich’s entire professional career was spent at Argonne National Laboratory outside of Chicago, where he ultimately became manager of the Fusion Power Program and was awarded the prestigious title of senior engineer. The capstone of his career was working on the development of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor currently being built in France. After building a weekend home in the Galena Territory in northwest Illinois, Rich and Laurie became involved with local groups, including the Natural Area Guardians and the Galena Territory Association where Rich served on the board and as chair of the greenspace committee.

They retired and moved to Jo Daviess County in 2003–’04 and Rich immediately became an active volunteer in many organizations. He served on the steering committee of the Jo Daviess Leadership Forum, and on the board of the Apple River Fort. He was a member of the Jo Daviess County Greenways and Trails Committee and cochair of the Riverfront Development Committee, part of the Galena Vision 2020 project. He was immediate past president of the Galena Rotary Club and was an active member of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Stockton, Illinois. But the organization he loved most and devoted much time and talent to was the Jo Daviess Conservation Foundation (JDCF). He served multiple terms as a board member, one term as president of the board and six months as interim executive director. His numerous contributions to JDCF ranged from providing photos and designing audio-visual presentations to conducting eagle-watching tours. A Renaissance man, philosopher, and bon vivant, Rich pursued a wide range of interests in his retirement. He loved photographing and painting wildlife and enjoyed writing both poetry and prose. He was a blacksmith and a bartender and a connoisseur of old movies and fine beer.