Matthew Chuck

As you are reading this you are probably saying something like “I went to school with a guy named Matt Chuck?” Or you remember the name because people liked to tease me about it (we were so mature then). The main reason I assume people would not remember too much about me was that I moved to California from the east coast in 7th grade and moved to Studio City in 9th. So I was only with most of you for 7th and 8th grade. I do have a lot of memories from those two years and as I look through this site I remember a lot more people and stories then I thought.

I went to Millikan for 9th grade, then to Grant, then UCLA and then SFSU. The two most important things in my life are my kids. I simply love being their dad. They bring me such pride and joy. I have had a lot of very interesting jobs, but what I am most proud of, and what has given me the greatest sense of accomplishment, is being one of the key people in bringing the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation to fruition. In my tenure at the Foundation we interviewed (on video) over 52,000 holocaust survivors in more than 32 countries and in 52 languages. The material has been used for education, multimedia projects, documentaries and museums around the world.

I might as well share what I consider the most embarrassing moment of my youth. I had been doing gymnastics since I was about 6 or 7 years old and when P.E. classes got around to the gymnastic rotation I got called in to do demonstrations. One day I was demonstrating a move on the high bar and in the still silence of the room, as all eyes were looking at me, as I felt great pride in hopes that some of the cool guys would finally remember my name… I let out a not so subtle, shall we say loud, fart. Well after days of the jokes I think some of them remembered my name. I did get voted a class leader of our P.E. squad. Not the guy who stood at the front of each line, but yes the guy who got to report who was not wearing their jock strap and other cool stuff like that.