Matthew Paul Harrold
July 24, 1957 - July 17, 2017

Matthew Paul Harrold left this world on July 17, 2017, just days from his 60th birthday.

Born July 24, 1957, in Fort Wayne, Indiana, to Paul C. and Dollie R. Harrold, he was the youngest of three, though the first sibling to depart.

Born into an Air Force family led by a fighter pilot, his older sister always saw Matt as air-born. He was installed into her bedroom at infancy and that was the beginning of a long and enduring friendship.

The men of the family loved speed. Matt and his older brother enjoyed a special bond through motorcycle racing and shared an opportunity to participate in European racing during the 1980s.

Matt carried the passion forward. He found himself mostly engaged in the task of making machines work better and and/or faster, but he could fix anything. He worked as a motorcycle and race mechanic in the Bay Area, but also took forays into unlikely endeavors like baking (remember Just Desserts?) and pump technology, proud of the patent he earned in that field.

Matt was an avid radio-controlled airplane operator. He was the kind of downhill skier who seemed to rarely make contact with the snow.

He missed his calling as a comedian. Matt lived most of his life in San Francisco, Oakland, Marin and Sonoma counties. He was pulled to the Rockies when his father became ill and then to Montana where he attended college and earned a degree in computer networking.

He was happy to follow his sister, as always her mover, to California’s Lake County in 2012.

Before a motorcycle accident grounded him, Matt had just started a new profession and job “fixing” computers for the Ukiah Unified School District.

For the next few years, he put his efforts toward a recovery that was beyond even his will and skill.

Matthew was preceded in death by his parents. He will be missed by his older siblings Robert (Bob), of Redding, Calif., and Barbara (BJ), of Kelseyville, Calif.; nieces, Lara Nichols (Scott and Stephanie) of Austin, Texas, and Tania Schneider (Michael, Finn and Mika) of Lauterbach, Germany; nephew, Paul Stelmack of Lewistown, Montana; as well as many friends, including the motorcycle community in the north bay (Sunday Morning Ride variety), and many dear cousins.

Keep your air speed up, Matt.