Wednesday, July 3, 2019
When I was a child what I remember first about my Uncle Mate was that he was a naturally gifted sketch artist. I recall at Family events, I would take a pencil, blank piece of paper, and walk up to him and say, “Uncle Mate can you please draw me a picture?” I left it up to him what he would draw and, due to his creative imagination and drawing skills, he never disappointed. One time he drew me a picture of a flying insect with gardening tools - a hoe, rake or shovel - in each of its six hands. I also remember the beautiful sketch in chalk of boxing gloves that he drew on his basement wall. He also excelled at assembling and painting the various monster models that the company Aurora put out in the 1960’s. You may remember some of these like Frankenstein, Dracula, Wolfman, the Mummy, the Creature from the Black Lagoon. When he was finished with these models, they were a perfect replica of the box cover. Uncle Mate loved to draw and paint.
Uncle Matt also loved the music and singing of Frank Sinatra. If you stopped by his house on a Friday evening, you were certain to find his radio tuned to Sid Mark’s “Friday with Frank”. And the same was true on Saturday’s with “Saturday with Sinatra”. The Sinatra songs he loved are too numerous to mention but one thing is true, Uncle Mate did it “His Way”. Uncle Mate loved Sinatra. ============================================================
Uncle Mate also loved baseball. He followed the Phillies closely and admired many of the great New York Yankees of old like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Joe DiMaggio. He became a dedicated baseball coach in his home town of Laurel Springs. My cousin Bobby tells me how he would groom the ball field by painting the fences, cutting down the brush, and edging the infield. His teams were always the “Athletics” to him and not the “A’s”. He taught his players the fundamentals and the rules of the game. And most importantly, he instilled in them a strong ethic of good sportsmanship. Uncle Mate loved baseball.
So to sum up, Uncle Matt was a man of many talents and passions…..
• He loved his parents and siblings
• He was a devoted father who loved his children, Francis, Billy, Cheryl, Bobby and Chrissy and his grandchildren
• He was a proud and patriotic American (he was especially proud of his son Billy’s service in the Navy deployed on the U.S.S. New Jersey)
• He was loyal
• He was generous with his time, talent and money
• He demonstrated a unique humility by putting others first
• He had a great sense of humor and was always fun to be around
• He will be deeply missed
