Douglas M. Mattics

Douglas MacArthur Mattics was born August 3, 1942, in Hugo, Colorado. Doug was the last of the six children born to John and Eva Mattics. Throughout his childhood Doug went by the name Mac Mattics. This was a nickname given by some of his older siblings because he was the youngest. As he was growing up, he struggled with polio in his legs, and this caused one of his legs to be shorter than the other. Despite the many doctors’ appointments regarding polio Doug finished high school with his GED from Hugo High. As a teenager growing up in Hugo, he had a companion which was a Collie. All his life there was usually a dog with him!

At the age of 26 he married Eleanor Manzanares. December 29th, 1968, they got married and this past year they celebrated 55 years of marriage together. Together they had three children. Paulette the oldest, Johnny their son, and Amy the youngest. They also became grandparents in the late 1990’s as their granddaughters Robin and I came into the world. He was a good father, but if I do say so myself and even greater grandfather.

Doug spent most of his life working in the bakery. He worked in a few different stores but the main one was the main one in a local King Soopers. He also had many hobbies that were small business type jobs. Doug loved to fix things and was known for fixing and working on lawnmowers. He would search them out at thrift stores and fix them up and sell them. Lawnmowers were not the only project though; he also was obsessed with clocks. For those who knew him and got to visit him in his home the walls and rooms were filled with clocks. He loved old grandfather clocks and coo-coo-clocks. He also fixed watches. Whenever someone had a problem with their watch or simply needed a new battery, they would come to him, and he would help them out.

As time went on Doug continued to share his kindness and warmth with the world in the friends that he made. Living on King Street there were many neighbors he got along with, but the one neighbor who turned into a family friend even after they moved was Alex Romero. Doug and Alex would spend time in the evenings out in the front yard smoking and drinking and just having witty conversations. Their friendship really bloomed as they spent time together in the thrift stores or segunda’s as grandpa would call them.

He was a helper and was willing to offer his time to causes he cared about. When the church has a chili cookoff he won third place and enjoyed participating in social events like these that the church would host. The church yard sale here at Denver West was a tradition and he would be here early to set up and stay all the way until closing. He was so invested that he wanted to make it as successful as it could possibly be.

Did you know that you can grow tomatoes upside down in containers suspended from the rafters of a back porch? This is one of the first memories he made with family friend Cat Madore. She came into the Mattics life due to a sad occurrence, but she never forgets how welcome Doug made her feel. He had a mischievous twinkle in his eye and always had an outrageous joke or wacky inventive experiment ready to show. Those tomatoes were wacky but they sure were some of the best around.

As Doug got older, he dealt with skin cancer which really affected his nose. He also suffered from many falls. Despite the decline in health, he still got to travel to see me graduate from college. The trip out to Lincoln, Nebraska was his first out of the state of Colorado in many years. It meant a lot to me that he was able to come on this trip and be there for my special day. He also got to tour two different train museums and those were another thing he was fascinated with. I will remember so many of the little things about Doug (grandpa) but most of all I will remember how when I was leaving, and we were exchanging the farewell greeting I would say I love you and he would say I love you too but just a little bit and it would always make chuckle.