Perry Matta

FUNERAL SERVICES : 2:00 pm on Friday, November 26, 2010 at the Cardini-Pearson Funeral Home in Menahga, MN.VISITATION : 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm on Friday, November 26, 2010 at the funeral home.INTERMENT : Sebeka West Cemetery, Sebeka , MNSURVIVORS : His sisters: Lulu Sullivan of Park Rapids, MN, Lola Rudderforth of Grand Rapids, MN and Ardella (Myron) Sidlo of Sebeka, MN; sister-in-law, Dorothy Matta of Northome, MN; nieces: Maureen (Gary) Majchrzak, Sherrie (Bill) Olson, Anita (Tim) Petersen, Diane (Stephen) Bennett, Christine (Robert) Anttila, Jennifer (John) Short and Stephanie (Jack) Flicek; nephews: James and Patrick Sullivan, Robin Rudderforth, Ronald (Kathy) Sidlo, William (Victoria), Miles (Linda), Todd (Teresa) and Stuart (Shirley) Matta ; nearly 40 grand and great-grand nephews and nieces. PERRY DOUGLAS MATTAMay 19, 1921 ~ November 18, 2010 Perry Matta, age 89, of Sebeka, MN succumbed to congestive heart failure at the Providence Hospital in Waco, TX on November 18, 2010. He had recently moved to Waco for the winter and had been living with his nephew, William Matta and his family. Perry was born on May 19, 1921 to William and Anna (Laine) in Minneapolis, MN. Perry entered the United States Navy and served his country from 1942 " 1946 during World War II and had completed his Navy pilot training near the end of the war. While Perry was exceedingly mild-mannered and gentlemanly, he was also a fierce competitor all his life: as teenagers, he and his brothers settled their youthful differences with boxing gloves and Perry won the US Navy Golden Gloves boxing championship for his weight class in 1944. After WWII ended, Perry attended college on the GI Bill and, after graduating from Bemidji State College with a bachelor of arts in biology and a minor in chemistry in the mid-1950s, began teaching high school biology and math, first in Lidgerwood, ND and then in Goodrich, MN and finally in Northome, MN where he taught from 1958 until 1968. While at Northome, Perry lived out of town with his older brother, Bill and his family; living for most of that time in a trailer house he had purchased and moved onto his brother"s property. Perry was a carpenter, electrician and plumber; and together he and his brother built on to Bill"s house, as well as building saunas and their lakeshore cabins on Blueberry Lake and on Lake Vermillion. From the mid 1950s until the late 1980s, Perry spent many summers at his Blueberry Lake summer cabin with his retired parents, where he enjoyed fishing and saunas by the lake. In the late 1960s, Perry bought a house and 80 acres overlooking Island Lake south of Northome, where he lived briefly before moving back to his hometown of Sebeka. There, he began working as an electrician for a mobile home manufacturer based in nearby New York Mills, living with and caring for his mother and father from that time until their deaths. Perry was a life-long Democrat and served in the 1970s as the local DFL precinct chair. Intensely interested in politics and science, he was a seeker of truth and a firm believer in the power of the scientific method as a means of discovering the real world. As an avid fisherman, he also greatly enjoyed deer hunting in the rural Northome area with his brother Bill and Bill"s sons and sons-in-law. In the summers, his nephews and his brother Bill often joined him at his Blueberry Lake cabin, where together they derived the greatest pleasures possible from fishing and visiting at all hours of the day and night. Perry was an editor of college textbooks, mentor and inspiration to his nieces and nephews, fully fluent in his first language of Finnish and eloquent to the highest degree in spoken, written and academic English. Perry was in many ways a Renaissance man, one who also devoutly believed in the Christian principles he had practiced throughout his life as well as in the true faith he had discovered during his last years. Absolutely unique in depth and strength of character, he was deeply loved by his family and will be sorely missed by all who knew him. Perry will be lovingly remembered by his sisters: Lulu Sullivan of Park Rapids, MN, Lola Rudderforth of Grand Rapids, MN and Ardella (Myron) Sidlo of Sebeka, MN; sister-in-law, Dorothy Matta of Northome, MN; nieces: Maureen (Gary) Majchrzak, Sherrie (Bill) Olson, Anita (Tim) Petersen, Diane (Stephen) Bennett, Christine (Robert) Anttila, Jennifer (John) Short and Stephanie (Jack) Flicek; nephews: James and Patrick Sullivan, Robin Rudderforth, Ronald (Kathy) Sidlo, William (Victoria), Miles (Linda), Todd (Teresa) and Stuart (Shirley) Matta; nearly 40 grand and great-grand nephews and nieces and many other family and friends. He was preceded in death by his parents; his brothers Miles and William and nephew, Thomas Rudderforth. Funeral services will be held at 2:00 pm on Friday, November 26, 2010 at the Cardini-Pearson Funeral Home in Menahga, MN with Pastors Christine Anttila and Sheldon Johnson officiating. Visitation will be held from 12:00 pm " 2:00 pm on Friday, November 26, 2010 at the Cardini-Pearson Funeral Home in Menahga, MN. Interment will be held at the Sebeka West Cemetery near Sebeka, MN. A lunch will be hosted by the American Legion Post #456 in Sebeka, MN following the service.