ForeverMissed
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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.

April 25, 2023
April 25, 2023
I am getting ready to move across the country. I was thinking about the things that are most important to me. Once thing that came to mind is the manuscript that Matt gave to me. It is his life story. I treasure those papers. Those will be going! What a history the Boissevain Family has!
June 14, 2022
June 14, 2022
Time has passed, but you are remembered always. I still think of your laugh and I can hear your voice. I remember the excitement with which you spoke when inventing something new.
May 10, 2020
May 10, 2020
Dearest Thys..we are in troubled times, unchartered seas. I wish you were here to guide us all, especially your family, with your wisdom. I have a feeling that you might have said something so simple as "My dear, don't worry it will be okay". It's what we need to hear from you. Bless you Oupa. With love, as always, Helen
April 25, 2020
April 25, 2020
Today I will go down to the tool room and look at the drawers that were Matt’s. I was just talking about him, sharing stories about him to the potential buyers of the house. The house was Chris’s but, some of Matt’s tools were down there. I miss Matt a lot. Tonight I will gather some Of his canyon friends who are still around and raise a glass.
Matt will always be part of our canyon. He lives on.
June 14, 2019
June 14, 2019
Rev's birthday was June 6th.  He visited Echo Lake the first week he was in California when he came down to continue his education at Stanford- this favorite place was yet another thing he and Thjis had in common.
April 25, 2019
April 25, 2019
Thinking of you Opa. Happy Birthday!! You are loved & missed by us all.
December 5, 2018
December 5, 2018
Thijs and Angie were friends of my parents, Mitch and Pedy Millman, and I remember often visiting the house on Moody Rd. I was much younger than Chris and Ben and Toby, and was usually left to explore on my own. I remember the amazing zipline Thijs built with his sons, and the cool little cottage he built for Angie. He took me hunting a couple of times, on land he maybe owned, or maybe didn't, and taught me to use a compound bow. I also remember a great camping trip at Yosemite where one of the boys found a very old silver dollar in, I think, Mirror Lake. I especially remember his workshop, with its amazing array of simultaneous partially-completed projects and crazy looking tools, probably because my own space looks so similar today. He instilled in me (probably unintentionally) an important part of my value system: that being clever is more important than being correct. We still have the wind chimes he and Angie sent us as a wedding gift, in 1992.
Thank you for the fond memories Thijs; Rest in Peace.
Derek
November 14, 2017
November 14, 2017
I was just thinking about Matt this week - as I am under the weather....I remembered that one time he "healed" me. I was starting to get sick and he made me a hot toddy--it worked!!! I didn't get sick! I was amazed. Wish he had been here this week to help me out again!
November 10, 2017
November 10, 2017
Dear Opa,

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.
June 14, 2017
June 14, 2017
Opa still talks with me in dreams on occasion. We still challenge each other in a loving way...I'm sure he would have enjoyed meeting Jen, and her sense of humor too, and seeing how well all 3 of his grandkids are doing, Soph, Max and Leah. Glad he had a full life.
June 14, 2017
June 14, 2017
One of a kind! I recently recounted a "Matt story" to someone who didn't even know him. He will always be in our hearts. He still makes me smile and laugh out loud! Yayyy Matt!
April 25, 2017
April 25, 2017
Thys..in loving memory. You were loved by all. Blessed to have met and known you. Here's to the wine we shared under the African sun!! xx
July 16, 2016
July 16, 2016
Hi,

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.
July 2, 2016
July 2, 2016
I have a long history mistrusting and ultimately not believing in the written word. So, to convey and express, especially about a person who has had a profound effect upon my life, and whom I’ve loved falls short, but what else do we have? Pictures, yes, music he played for me, his harmonica playing? I give this scrawl to my close friend Chris Boissevain who appeared soon after Thijs’ death to need me to comment.
 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
June 15, 2016
June 15, 2016
Our wonderful Opa-miss u so very much!! Hard to believe it has been 4 years now - I continue to play your favorite Fado and Joan Baez. Proud of you always. Love Charis,Leah and Lily
June 14, 2016
June 14, 2016
This past weekend, I traveled up to Ojai to meet a bunch of the girls from the Canyon (Sierra Madre). We reminisced,.... we talked about Matt. Good times :-)
I sometimes run across a nail ....or something that belonged to Matt and it makes me happy.
April 25, 2016
April 25, 2016
Still miss the never-to-be-replaced-one-of-a-kind-man!
We were just recently talking about him….and his underground air conditioning unit that he made for his canyon abode.
April 25, 2016
April 25, 2016
I was just with Jen listening to the wind in the trees, his favorite music
June 10, 2015
June 10, 2015
In a few days is will be exactly 3 years since Opa passed.What an honor it was to take care of him during that final chapter of his life.Opa would be happy to know that on June 14 our lovely Leah will be flying to stunning Cape Town,South Africa to be with my Mom for the Summer.What great times we all had with Opa when he joined my family in Africa.
April 10, 2015
April 10, 2015
Leah & Lily, you were both lucky to have such a great, funny, fun, interesting Opa. I'm glad you think of him and that he will be part of you forever. Xo
April 9, 2015
April 9, 2015
Opa was such a big part of my life , and was a great grandfather to me and my sister lily . I miss him so much ,and I cherish the time I spent with my beloved opa. He was always there for me no matter what . Although I miss him I know that he had a great life , and had great friends and family around him .
November 21, 2014
November 21, 2014
Always think of you dear Opa. I watched a documentary on the Korean War and now i understand why u cried when u spoke to me about your platoon and friends that were killed in Korea. Will be missing you this holiday season. You would be happy to know that Chris and Ben and Sophia and Leah are together this Thanksgiving. Will light holiday candles for you. You are always in our hearts. Love and miss you.
June 14, 2014
June 14, 2014
Always will remember Matt, he was a one in a million person. I found his autobiography recently. Was great to come across and 'visit' with Mattis for awhile.
I am going to Sierra Madre today. I think I'll go check out his old place.
:-)
June 14, 2014
June 14, 2014
Oh! And I almost forgot----I was in the basement of the house (woodland) and saw some of Matts old labels (screws, etc).
I get to see that every time I visit.
(I bought, and now rent- a house once owned by Chris & Charis)
December 11, 2013
December 11, 2013
We tell stories about Matt, or retell 'his' interesting and sometimes hilarious stories- often :-)
December 9, 2013
December 9, 2013
Two days ago Lily and Helen lay flowers at the Cape Town town hall for Nelson Mandela. I wanted to lay a flower for u too as you will always be a hero to me.
April 25, 2013
April 25, 2013
it was a great day for the planet the day Opa was born and a very sad day when he left. His enquiring mind, his open generous spirit, his kindness, his wonderful sense of humor and naughtiness is still missed. His hardships during his World War 11 childhood never left him bitter. I was lucky to have shared the same grand-daughters with him and to have had him loving Charis so much.
July 22, 2012
July 22, 2012
Thijs is a free spirit, who enjoyed life daily and was able not to worry about the future. He did little planning, he could do without it,very difficult for most of us.When he had to choose between the Dutch and US citizenship,it came down to "the best chocolate milk shakes and free open spaces".
I try hard to be just a little like him!
July 7, 2012
July 7, 2012
We had many great adventures together. As the "fun son", it was my duty to make sure he had fun. He did indeed. He squeezed every drop of pleasure out of life. We visited Amsterdam, his favorite city, Berlin, his suggestion to overcome his anger at Germans, and Riga, my suggestion since it is a charming city. He was an excellent travel companion, never complaining and always very creative.
July 7, 2012
July 7, 2012
Mat is one of a kind. He is part of my fabric in life. I am glad to have known him and kept him in my heart.
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.
July 6, 2012
July 6, 2012
What was Mat's most valuable contribution to the continuum? What exotic tools now hang in our shop? His legacy's a viable formula for joy -the same that served him throughout his life, drawing a host of friends & family to his side. With a glad heart and tenacious intelect, Mat set about extracting such joy as might be had from his remarkable life, and loved his people with a like passion.
July 1, 2012
July 1, 2012
Mat was my dad, and friend. I called him Opa, meaning grandpa in Dutch, because it was a role he relished. He was an eccentric, highly creative man with an open, questioning mind, and a warm heart. He was also complex, and not always easy. He lived an amazing life story. He had his dreams and desires to the end. His last words were "It might be an anomoly"
July 1, 2012
July 1, 2012
This is a work in progress. If anyone wants to add stories or pics please feel free. Also, brothers, if either of you would like to co-administer site, I'd appreciate the help.

Thanks,

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Recent Tributes
April 25, 2023
April 25, 2023
I am getting ready to move across the country. I was thinking about the things that are most important to me. Once thing that came to mind is the manuscript that Matt gave to me. It is his life story. I treasure those papers. Those will be going! What a history the Boissevain Family has!
June 14, 2022
June 14, 2022
Time has passed, but you are remembered always. I still think of your laugh and I can hear your voice. I remember the excitement with which you spoke when inventing something new.
May 10, 2020
May 10, 2020
Dearest Thys..we are in troubled times, unchartered seas. I wish you were here to guide us all, especially your family, with your wisdom. I have a feeling that you might have said something so simple as "My dear, don't worry it will be okay". It's what we need to hear from you. Bless you Oupa. With love, as always, Helen
Recent stories

Environmental Engineering

May 21, 2020
Saw a show on youtube today about restoring decimated agricultural landscapes in Australia, Africa, and Lebanon to prevent future drought and thought of Thjis and his bicycle-powered water pump for India.  He said the implementation of his low-tech gadgets was frustrated by the Catch 22 cast system in India, which doesn't allow the educated to do manual labor and doesn't allow the laborers to get an education.  This also seemed to be a problem with sustainable agriculture, which was difficult to explain to even relatively well-educated people.  

Geratric Engineering

June 15, 2014

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

June 15, 2014

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.

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