David Henry "Dave" Mattei

David Henry Mattei of San Mateo, California, aged 84, died peacefully in his sleep from complications from pneumonia, his loving wife and daughters by his side. His final day was made brighter by the presence of other dear family members including his sister, grandson, nephew, and niece. Along with wonderful support from the caring doctors and nurses at Mills-Peninsula Medical Center Burligname, Dave's final days were as pleasant as could have been hoped. A few hours before he passed away, he was sitting up and smiling and said he felt like the Godfather with his family all around him and asked the nurse to take some photos, which she was delighted to do.

Dave Mattei leaves behind a legacy of good cheer and warmth. An extrovert with an exceptionally jovial and kind nature, Dave loved nothing more than a room full of strangers and time to get to know them all.

Born in San Francisco to an Italian immigrant father and an Italian mother from Pennsylvania, Dave was raised in San Mateo and dreamed of putting his own footprints on the moon. In pursuit of his dream, he went to UC Berkeley as an engineering student and joined the Air Force ROTC. While at Berkeley, he met the first love of his life, his wife of 62 years, Janice, whom he married in 1963. Upon graduation in 1964, he became an electronic warfare officer in a B-52, protecting our troops on the ground in Vietnam. According to his wife, that was about close enough to the action. He was honorably discharged from the Air Force in 1969 but maintained a lifelong love of all things aeronautical.

After the Air Force, Dave joined Honeywell, where he met the second love of his life, computer engineering. Dave was a nerd long before being a nerd was cool. In 1975, he left Honeywell to join Sperry Corporation as a systems analyst where he remained for 45 years through the company's transformation into Unisys. Dave loved his job and his job loved him. He made many lifelong friends there.

Dave leaves behind a loving wife, daughters, sons-in-law, step-granddaughters, sister, nieces, nephews, cousins, and many many friends. His calm, steady, kind, logical, cheerful, friendly, and loving nature will be sincerely missed, not just by those who knew him well, but we're certain by everyone he had yet to meet. Although we're hopeful that wherever he is, he's having a bourbon with reunited family and friends, and all the nice new strangers he has an eternity to get to know. Rest in peace, Dad.