A8
THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, APRIL 27, 2021
Mattila: ‘I’m going to miss him an awful lot’
Continued from Page A1
In recent years, Mattila
spent time coaching youth
football, including players
at the third grade level, the
grandchildren of players he
had taught in the 1970 s.
His death wasn’t sudden
or unexpected, said Mat-
tila-Gascoigne. “He just
didn’t want anyone to know.
He was in the hospital for
21 days, and it was not until
day 18 or 19 that he actually
started letting me let people
know what was happening.”
Mattila-Gascoigne,
a
nurse practitioner at Colum-
bia Memorial Hospital in
Astoria, said “the congestive
heart failure stems from the
fact that he had the juvenile
rheumatoid arthritis. In some
cases it gets severe enough it
messes with your heart, and
in his case it did. Eventually,
the heart gets weak enough
that it can’t pump, then the
kidneys get involved (car-
diorenal syndrome), and
basically the heart fails and
the kidney fails.”
Mattila had only recently
returned home to be with
family.
“He knew that we knew.
He came home to say good-
bye,”
Mattila-Gascoigne
said. “He was so happy
being home and having his
friends here. All he wanted
to do was get back home.”
And, in typical coach
Mattila fashion, he wanted
all the details ironed out in
preparation for his passing.
“You know my dad — he
was trying to plan every little
thing,” Mattila-Gascoigne
said. “He wrote his own obit-
uary, and then attached his
passport photo to it, so we
knew what photo he wanted.
“He was very adamant
that he didn’t want a funeral
and didn’t want this or that.
But he never said the words
‘celebration of life.’ We’re
still convinced that we’ll do
something, but it’s a little
early right now,” she said.
His son-in-law, Paul Gas-
coigne, said, “he was talking
and visiting with people up
Six new virus cases
reported by county
The Astorian
Clatsop County on Monday reported six new
coronavirus cases.
The cases involve a woman in her 20s, a man
and a woman in their 50s and two women and a
man in their 60s living in the northern part of the
county.
All six were recovering at home.
The county has recorded 918 cases since the
start of the pandemic. According to the county, 22
were hospitalized and eight have died.
The c ounty will resume the use of the John-
son & Johnson vaccine this week after the federal
Food and Drug Administration and Oregon Health
Authority lifted a pause.
The county will continue to reserve the one-dose
vaccine for people who have diffi culty getting to
regularly scheduled vaccination clinics.
Photos by Gary Henley/The Astorian
ABOVE: John Mattila won 290 games as the Warrenton girls
basketball coach. LEFT: John Mattila coached Warrenton
third grade football players right up to the 2019 season.
to the last 24 hours. He was
getting around, walking the
property a little … still being
John.”
A football player
Among his closest friends
were fellow Warrenton
coaches Gary McBride and
Lennie Wolfe — all together,
nearly a century of coaching
experience.
After graduating from
Mark Morris High School
in 1965, Mattila attended
Grays Harbor College and
transferred to Western Wash-
ington, playing football at
both schools.
He took his fi rst teach-
ing position at Tillamook
High School in 1970, and
coached football, wrestling
and baseball.
He moved to Warrenton
in 1974, was named head
football coach, and taught
English, physical education,
health, driver’s education
and was vice principal.
The Mattila era of War-
renton football spanned fi ve
diff erent decades and 15
league championships.
The school board voted
in 2016 to name the high
school gridiron John Mattila
Field.
“John was the best orga-
nizer of any coach I’ve ever
been around,” said McBride,
who assisted Mattila in foot-
ball. “He loved high school
sports. I can’t tell you how
many times we scouted on
Saturdays after playing Fri-
day. He was so organized,
and always had something
ready for the next game.”
Right up to his fi nal days,
Wolfe said, “John was con-
trolling his own narrative , as
far as how things were going
to end.”
In addition, “I feel that
I’ve lost a very good friend.
High school football since
Annual
MAY
ANNIVERSARY
1991, for me, has meant
spending time with John.
From the time I joined his
staff until the last home
game this year. We missed
maybe six or seven Fridays
in the last 10 years, where
we just couldn’t fi nd a game
to go to.”
‘Very loyal’
McBride said winning
was important to Mattila,
but it wasn’t always the only
thing.
“He was very loyal to
anyone who worked their
butt off , even if they weren’t
the best player. He was
going to treat them respect-
fully, give them a chance
and an opportunity,” he said.
“He was a little old-school in
that. It wasn’t always about
playing the absolute best. He
was real loyal to kids who
worked hard.”
Wolfe said, “at the fore-
front of my thoughts right
now, are Mary Ann and Alli-
son. I’m feeling sorrow and
sympathy for them.
“Allison said on Face-
book that she had lost her
hero. I suspect a lot of peo-
ple feel that way. I’m going
to miss him an awful lot.”
Park: ‘Really great progress’
Continued from Page A1
The donation brought the
$1.4 million fundraising eff ort
close to the amount needed to
start construction at Peoples
Park off Marine Drive in the
fall. The park will include a
large midsummer pole in the
middle of a plaza surrounded
by trees and shrubbery. Gran-
ite slabs and fl agpoles will
represent Denmark, Finland,
Iceland, Norway and Swe-
den, with an archway leading
to interpretive panels explain-
ing the heritage of Scandina-
vians in the region.
Janet Bowler, the vice
chairwoman for the Nor-
dic Heritage Park Commit-
tee, said the donation was a
nice push forward given the
challenges of trying to raise
money without in-person
gatherings during the corona-
virus pandemic.
“It’s a way to meet people
and new donors, and we’ve
been without that for two
years,” Bowler said. “But
despite that, we’ve made
really great progress. The
Nordic community really
wants to see this park built.”
Bowler said the park still
has several border plaques
and laser-cut inscription pan-
els available for naming
rights.
Larson said there are
some scaled back, online
and socially distanced events
planned for the midsummer
festival from June 18 to June
20, including a live streamed
coronation of the c ourt and
an optog, or parade, from the
Columbia River Maritime
Museum to the site of the
Nordic park.
“We’ll be in native wear,”
Larson said. “We’ll have our
fl ags out. I think we’re going
to have a smaller version of
our midsummer pole. Our
standard is quite unwieldy.
But we’ll be singing the
national anthems, both of old
and of our American home.”
Bowler said the Finnish
Suomi Hall in Uniontown
will sell rice pudding and fruit
soup to-go behind the build-
ing. The attic of the hall will
also host a live streamed read-
er’s theater production of “Of
Love and Politics,” she said,
after 13 scripts were found in
the attic and translated.
“Theater was really big
at Finnish Brotherhood from
the turn of the century to the
’50s,” she said.
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