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MATT DAWSON 1944 - 2017
Cloyd Matthew Dawson died peacefully in his home after a long illness on November 20, 2017 in Euless, Texas with his devoted wife Susan of 23 years by his side. Matt was born on October 27, 1944 in Berkeley, California to his parents, Cloyd and Marjorie Dawson. He graduated from Piedmont High School in 1962 and attended the University of Wyoming in Laramie. In High School, Matt was on the track team and excelled in the relay, 100-yard dash, and the long jump. He was proud to be a Kimmer and not to be forgotten his high school band the Thundertones.
A true family man, avid golfer, traveler and entertainer, he loved to sing and act and was in several Moraga Playhouse productions. Matt is survived by his wife Susan, daughters Molly Milley (Pete) and Emily Callahan (John) whom he shared with former spouse Catherine Heidt Bolcerek (Piedmont class of 1964), step sons Michael and Brian Heitz, his granddaughter Caitlin Callahan, sister Deborah Dawson and several close cousins, nieces and nephews. He is preceded in death by his mother, Marjorie Virginia Jones Dawson and his father Cloyd Oliver Dawson Jr. In lieu of flowers, the family requests contributions be made in memory to The National Kidney Foundation.
Vickie and I worked with Matt on our 30th Reunion. One time after I had retired, Matt called me and we had a good talk about where life had taken us. We will all miss Matt.
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Jeff Robinson
Matt was a very talented man whose skills were well known by his many friends at Beach School and Piedmont High.
He was known as a good athlete and starred in track as a sprinter in the dashes, qualifying as “All County”. Matt was also a member of our Sprint Relay Team that won their race at the Fresno Relays and set a record that lasted for years.
Music was another of Matt’s loves as he was the winner of our Talent Show one year. One of his best memories was of Bruce, Bob and Randy during their Thundertones band years. They composed many songs and cut an album on green vinyl. Matt’s Mother designed the cover and there are still a number of them around.
Matt had a successful, self-employed career and was a member of the Sequoia Country Club. As a 49er football fan he was a season ticket holder. Matt was an avid golfer who also enjoyed trout fishing and camping and spent years in Graeagle, CA with his family on their vacations.
When retirement came, he relocated to Dallas, TX and enjoyed his new Corvette and pet dogs.
After a battle with kidney disease, Matt passed on Monday, November 20, 2017 at age 73.
He is survived by his wife Susan, daughters Molly and Emily, granddaughter Caitlin and sister Deborah of PHS 1971. Services will be private.
Rest in peace, Matt.
Bruce Beebe
Matt and I became close friends right from the start when we met at Piedmont Jr. High. He had arrived from Beach and I from Havens, but we had known each other from our sports activities at our rival grammar schools. While we both joined the Jr High track team as sprinters (and later the Piedmont High team), in the long run Matt proved to be the much better athlete garnering his Block P in his junior and senior years while I cheered from the stands.
Always with a smile on his face, Matt had a wonderful easy-going personality that allowed him to make and keep friends easily. Well liked by the girls, he was a natural choice for me to often grab for a double date partner to a weekend movie, school dance or Kimmer party.
It was Matt's love for music that led us to forming The Thundertones. Matt's father was a wood-working hobbyist on the weekends and built Matt a solid-body guitar similiar to the then popular Fender Stratacaster. Matt spent endless after-school hours learning the guitar and later became my tutor. Backed by Matt's self-taught ability to write the melodies of dozens of original compositions, we gathered up Bob Matheny on drums and Randy Keys on Saxophone to complete the band. Winning two Piedmont Talent Shows and playing dances at Acalanes, Miramonte and Los Lomas gave us the confidence to record Matt's compositions on the green vinyl album that we offered to classmates. Matt would be please to know that so many of us still have our copies.
Matt, thank you for those wonderful memories. Rest in peace.
Catherine Keys
Hey, Matt! Rumor has it that you've made the Quantum Leap from dynamic field of possibilities to specific, measurable entity, so in case the report of your recent demise is an exaggeration, I figure I'd better send you a final epistle.
Some of your friends have noted your musical talent, as exemplified by guitaring for the irrepressible Thundertones, but I wonder how many people realize the depth and breadth of your musical mind. Do you remember the time you and I left a party at the big house up at the end of Nace, where it doglegs left down to Lake (left again to dear old Egbert W.), and you were whistling? Not just any whistling, but melodic whistling. And not just pursed-lip whistling, but some technique you had figured out that enabled you to achieve serious volume and with stunning melodic accuracy; to wit: the theme song from the John Wayne blockbuster of the day, "The High and the Mighty". I remember well my incredulity that you could do it as well as the whistler in the recorded version playing on the radio. Why you didn't play an instrument at Beach is beyond me. Or did you? I can't remember. All I remember is Pam Price and I squeaking away on clarinets and Joan Gibson bravely squeaking away on a violin.
So anyway, I didn't get re-acquainted with your talent for melody until high school, with the emergence of the Thundertones. Considering it in retrospect, I believe the band is my best memory of high school. (The touchdown was cool, but that was a one-off. Kapas? Meh... Sitting near Susie L. in Laird's Spanish class was cool, but I could barely say "hi" to her without collapsing inside.) Anyhow, I now realize that you were the driving force behind the music of the Thundertones, along with Beebe's intuitive brilliance for marketing and managing and Matheny's one-man rhythm section, holding it down like a pro. I just contributed riffs on the melodies you wrote; melodies that still stand up as potential classics today. I regret having lost touch with you, having dived down a rabbit hole of my own making. But hey... I've got you on green virgin vinyl. And deep in my heart.
In conclusion, Matt, I owe you an apology. When you responded to my birthday greeting a few years ago, I was delighted to have successfully contacted a former classmate. When you stopped writing, I assumed it was because you had changed your mind about talking to me, so I dug the rabbit hole. I should have taken Vickie's advice and reached out to you again. I'm so sorry I didn't. Your demise without my final contact with you leaves me empty and dumbstruck.
You ran a good race, Brother Matthew. I am so privileged to have been able to run with you for a couple of years.