This memorial website was created in the memory of our loved one, Mathew Boissevain, 81, born on April 25, 1931 and passed away on June 15, 2012. We will remember him forever.
Tributes
Leave a tributeMatt will always be part of our canyon. He lives on.
Thank you for the fond memories Thijs; Rest in Peace.
Derek
Thinking of you this Veterans Day weekend. You are missed and loved by so many. Thank you for sharing your light and kindness with us all.
I know I'm a little late to the table with this but I just read about Mat's passing and thought I'd add some comments.
Almost 40 years go I worked for the Measurex Corporation as a field engineer based in New Jersey.
Sensors that could connect to a computer system, at the time, were something new. The thinking that Mat brought forth at that time was so far ahead of its time that no one has been able to develop anything to beat them - even today.
I can't imagine the brain power he must have had, the ability to think creatively and so far out of the box. He was, in my mind - a true genius.
Thijs helped me understand inextricably many things and words/ language was one of them. He wasn’t a writer, he practiced reading; he left the writing to the talents of Angie and Chris. His talent, genius really, and what he thrived in naturally was in the physical phenomenal world. Anybody who reads this here already knows that about him. Still some may not know that this is probably where my respect, appreciation, and perhaps a sense of wonder about him started…so long ago. It was how he lived and his unique countenance that surrounded his lifestyle that I responded too in the beginning. At the time I desperately needed a different way from being raised in the suburbs of Sunnyvale as a young kid. I moved to Los Altos Hills as a teenager with my family that brought with them suburban values; the manicured golfing lawn where no golfing clubs existed. Just over the hill was a different aesthetic surrounding Duveneck Vally. Some families, or so it seemed to me, took refuge from the insanity of growth the lit up Silicon Valley and mass produced values. Eventually though Guy Ayers I met the Boissevain family with whom I found a yet to be revealed; kinship, respect, had shared fun, joy, laughter, interests, sharing, raising our children of the same age, honored, and lived many beautiful years which I will take with me to my dying day. Long ago Tobie gave me the old family’s 1971 510 wagon that Thijs, Chris, Tobe, and especially I think (Angie) drove. Thijs liked cars, had a keen eye for good engineering of course and bought this one apparently from what Rev Ayers said, ( Guy’s dad ), “the only Japanese car that he could fit in comfortably”. Later Thijs gave me his trailer that he resuscitated after Tom Sherlock threw it away down in some gully off Sherlock Road, so the story goes. I tow it with the 510 to the annual dump days here in the hills. Any old who, I drive this car, a sort of memorial to Thijs; seeing my face occasionally in the speedometer glass like his did, I reflect on him often. ( Still have it, after the recent paint job, the reglued plastic Olympus camera box that carry a collection of metric wrenches )
another note-
On occasion I sit out back of my house, sometimes with a beer and gaze drifting back as I look at Elephant Mountain from a farther distance than where Thijs and family viewed it just outside their house. Realizing long ago Thijs was a young father over there tucked away from the hustle of the growing bay area...thriving inventing, his mind liberated by the big sky of Duveneck Valley. In a way; a minor way as I am too here. It warms me to imagine the precious time for my dear close friend as a boy of Thijs. Sometimes I am overwhelmed by the beauty that existed.
" The reality is that you will grieve forever. You will not 'get over' the loss of a loved one;you will learn to live with it. You will heal and you will rebuild yourself around the loss you have suffered. You will be whole again but you will never be the same, Nor should you be the same nor would you want to" Elizabeth Kubler Ross and John Hessler
I sometimes run across a nail ....or something that belonged to Matt and it makes me happy.
We were just recently talking about him….and his underground air conditioning unit that he made for his canyon abode.
I am going to Sierra Madre today. I think I'll go check out his old place.
:-)
I get to see that every time I visit.
(I bought, and now rent- a house once owned by Chris & Charis)
I try hard to be just a little like him!
Thinking of Mat- brings thought of funny/interesting stories, situations, these These stories and situations give me ... Laughter, wonderment, and a smile.
He is missed by many. I will always treasure his autobiography that he gave to me.
Thanks,
Leave a Tribute
Environmental Engineering
Geratric Engineering
The Suncatcher is the brainchild of Thjis further developed by the Geriatric Engineering Society (my father, Walter Ayers, was a member). The idea was to recycle old water heaters by cutting a hole in the tank insulation, paint the tank with "black chrome"-type highly absorptive non-radiative paint, and replace the portion of the removed housing with a clear plastic window. Light-gauge stainless steel reflectors could be mounted flanking the aperture. The Society built a prototype, and hired me to do some 3D computer drawings.
Geratric Engineering
The Suncatcher is the brainchild of Thjis further developed by the Geriatric Engineering Society (my father, Walter Ayers, was a member). The idea was to recycle old water heaters by cutting a hole in the tank insulation, paint the tank with "black chrome"-type highly absorptive non-radiative paint, and replace the portion of the removed housing with a clear plastic window. Light-gauge stainless steel reflectors could be mounted flanking the aperture. The Society built a prototype, and hired me to do some 3D computer drawings.