SALINAS, California (28 Nov 2008) — World War II wasn't what got James A. Mattison interested in a career in medicine. After all, he was the namesake son of a renowned surgeon. But it was as a 19-year-old Navy corpsman on Saipan - caring for wounded GIs straight off the battlefield - that Mattison, known to family, friends, and international celebrities simply as "Jim," developed what would be a lifelong passion to serve others and the planet. The well-known surgeon and environmentalist, who studied photography with Ansel Adams and helped bring Hospice and visiting-nurses care to Monterey County, died Nov. 20. He was 83. "To me, his was the epitome of a life well-lived," said his son, Richard D. Mattison of Elkhorn, one of three children Mattison had with his wife of 57 years, Joanne Mattison. "He was a gentleman who absolutely believed in the Hippocratic Oath; we are here to serve others. "He always encouraged us to be ourselves and to find our joy in the service of our fellow human beings; that is a wonderful legacy to leave." Service to others was what Dr. Jim Mattison, born in 1925 in Los Angeles, was all about - in and out of his scrubs. He was on staff at Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital and Natividad Medical Center from 1958 till his retirement in 2006, serving both institutions as chief of surgery and chief of staff. He performed 200 major surgeries a year, his son said, including head and colon and thyroid, but hand surgery was his favorite. In addition to his surgical skills, Mattison had a particular passion for skin and SCUBA diving, something he developed on Saipan. His interest in hyperbaric medicine made him a key player in securing a hyperbaric chamber for the Pacific Grove Fire Department. The chamber is used to help divers who suffer the potentially fatal effects of surfacing too quickly. Distinguished company Indeed, Dr. Mattison's interests and quiet influence were so varied and so widely respected that as kids Richard Mattison and his brother, John, of San Diego, and sister, Dorothea Meis, of Visalia, never knew which famous personage might show up next in the living room. One day it was Gregory Peck because of Mattison's work in helping to form the local chapter of the American Cancer Society; another time it was famed oceanographer Jacques Cousteau. An avid outdoorsman, hunter and fisherman, Mattison and his wife briefly owned a kayak-building company. "We kayaked together for 40 years before it was popular," said Joanne Mattison, 80. The couple met in 1950 "on the men's ward at San Francisco General Hospital. I was a nurse in training and he was in medical school," she said. | | Dr. James Mattison The big attraction? "We just liked to do the same things," she said. "He was an outdoors person and I am too. I love sports." 'I just loved him' For many years, she and her husband were two of only three kayakers who plied Monterey Bay, she recalled. What she remembers most about her husband: "I just loved him," Joanne said. Mattison's affiliations ranged from medical societies to conservation groups to research institutes and photography and diving clubs. He advised the state Fish and Game Department, and co-authored with Eleanor C. Nordyke "Pacific Images," a book about one of his passions, Capt. James Cook, the legendary English explorer. His son tells the story of how Dr. Mattison stood up to a big oil company and local interests when an oil refinery was proposed for Elkhorn slough in the late 1960s. "He asked some very pointed questions," Richard Mattison said. And when the proposal failed, the doctor and his family "suffered" the consequences of being ill-thought-of by the proponents. But that all changed, he said, when it was later shown that oil refineries can have deadly impacts on animal life nearby. "Elkhorn Slough is a wonderful legacy" of his father's passion for the environment, Richard Mattison said. And when his father incurred the wrath of abalone fisherman - which included slashed tires and threats - in his efforts to protect the sea otter's food supply, Richard Mattison said, it was tempered by respect for what his father stood for. Dr. Mattison co-founded Friends of the Sea Otter. But when all was said and done, he said, his father was a very family focused man. "He was always there for everybody; it was a remarkable thing to grow up around him." |
