JOHN MATTA

I design disinfectants, medical-grade cleaners, hemodialysis equipment and fluids, sports disinfectants, and all sorts of strange stuff.
I have a Ph.D. in Biochemistry (University of Minnesota). Since I now live in Minnesota (since 1973), I'm a big hockey fan. Especially high school hockey. I began playing classical guitar at age 47! (I'm slightly better after 20 years of practice, but the Romeros are not worried about any competition). My idea of a great vacation is to go backpacking, preferably in the mountains (Minnesota has no mountains, so I go to Montana, unless I want to canoe). I take my guitar with me on hikes (the guitar folds!). I play it to scare the bears away. So far it's worked.

Fr. Luke used to always speak to me in Italian if we passed in the hall...he was apparently convinced that, with my last name, I had to be Italian (actually I'm Slovak). Eventually I had to learn a few phrases in Italian to respond to him. Every once in a while he'd give a curious and confused smile...I'm guessing I mispronounced it in some horrible way. Taking all that Latin did not help much with Italian, but it did help tremendously in the sciences.