Kevin Harold Mattoon, a longtime Snohomish County resident, journeyman plumber, forever optimist and friend to anyone who smiled, died in Berkeley, California. He was 59.
Kevin was born 60 years ago this day in Oxnard, California. He lived there with his parents, Tom and Carolyn, and his two older brothers until a few months before his fifth birthday. In the following years, Kevin moved about Oregon and Washington before settling with his mother and brothers in Edmonds, where he finished elementary school and attended College Place Junior High and Edmonds High.
After his discharge from the Army in 1983, Kevin spent most of his adult life in the Snohomish area. He was a dog lover, a motorcycle enthusiast, an avid bowler and a sports fan. He treasured his old school buddies and was quick to take new friends to heart. He loved music and fast-paced movies, and he had a kid’s weakness for ice cream.
As his health declined, Kevin retired to Ocean Shores about five years ago. Still, he always looked ahead. He traveled to Hawaii twice, where he bodysurfed, learned to snorkel, rode horseback, and hiked for miles and miles. In between those trips, he spent three weeks in the Philippines with his girlfriend. When he moved to San Francisco for better health care in early 2019, he explored the city’s neighborhoods and parks, enrolled in VA-sponsored golf and fly-fishing programs, attended big league baseball games on both sides of the bay, and joined the San Francisco Lawn Bowling Club. A year ago, Kevin moved to Mexico — partly for the experience and partly to save money for a long-planned, but pandemic-delayed, final move to the Philippines.
Kevin struggled with addiction throughout his adult life. But he maintained a perpetually sunny view of the world and his place in it. Several weeks before he died, Kevin started to take stock of his life with a written list of what he was most proud of. “This is my legacy,” he wrote opposite of Page 1.
His son, Joshua, topped the list. Kevin also wrote about the medal a two-star general pinned on him in Germany, the many high school exchange students he hosted, his bowling prowess, using CPR to save a man’s life, his 4.0 GPA and Student of the Year award in plumbing school, and bravely volunteering to be kissed by an orca at SeaWorld when he was a boy.
Kevin had written four pages when his time ran out this summer, on June 18. Had he written for a year, though, the list still wouldn’t have come close to any measure of the person.
Kevin loved people, and he loved helping people. He could easily command market rates for his services as a plumber, but if you were a friend, he’d work for little more than lunch money. If you needed help clearing land, he’d volunteer. He’d loan you money when he was barely scraping by. Once, in San Francisco, he stopped a thief from running off with a woman’s bag. The guy told him, “But I’m hungry!” So Kevin gave him a few bucks and let him go.
Compassion and empathy were core to Kevin’s being. Anyone should hope to claim that as a legacy.
In June, Kevin moved back to California to spend his final weeks with family and reminisce over shared memories. He will forever be missed.
Kevin is survived by his son, Joshua (Snohomish County); brother Kim (Grays Harbor County); brother Scott and his wife, Julie (California); brother Chris and his wife, Lindsay (Grays Harbor County); stepmother Patricia Kugen; stepbrother Shawn Murray and his wife, Jennifer West; stepsister Sarah Wilson (all Thurston County); and several nieces and nephews.
October 16, 1961 – June 18, 2021
Published by The Herald (Everett) from Oct. 16 to Oct. 17, 2021.
Credit: Source link
