Born to Milton Matson and Helen Campbell Matson, he grew up in Royal Oak, Michigan before attending Oakland University. Many happy hours were spent at Tipsico Lake at the Matson’s summer cottage. Dale was drafted into the army in 1967 and was primarily stationed in Fairbanks, Alaska.
He married Sandra Luecht in 1970 and moved to Wisconsin where he raised his two sons Benjamin and Zachary while working as a heavy equipment operator. In the mid-1980s he went back to school to earn his BA at UW Green Bay, MA at UW Whitewater and PhD in psychology from Marquette University. He then went to work as a school psychologist and professor.
Moving to Fresno, California to take a full-time job at Fresno Pacific University (FPU) in 1993, he trained school psychologists. He married Sharon Jones McMurray in 1996.
They joined the Episcopal/Anglican church together and Dale soon heard his calling to the deaconette, being ordained in 2008 and then became a priest in 2010.
Dale had many interests including running, swimming, hiking, photography and writing. He completed two 100 mile ultra-marathon races as well as the Hawaii Ironman triathlon at age 60. He wrote several books on a variety of subjects and maintained a blog “Mid Sierra Musings”.
Dale served on the Fresno County Search and Rescue team for 10 years.
He enjoyed his Thursday morning “old farts” group, the Saturday morning joggers breakfast group, the FPU regular guys birthday lunches and other long-term friendships.
His passion for photography inspired many hours of hiking, wandering, and driving to ideal locations to photograph scenery like bald and golden eagles, bighorn sheep, and even grizzly bears in Alaska.
Dale is preceded in death by his parents Milton and Helen and his sister Nancy Matson. He is survived by his brother Milton Donald Matson (Nancy), sister Verna Leoni (Tony), wife Sharon, sons Ben (Jasmin Kloos) and Zach (Adrienne), stepsons Charlie McMurray (Amy) and Jed McMurray (Anna), and seven grandsons, Lukas and James Matson, Jamison, Maxwell, Miles, Beau and JJ McMurray.
In lieu of flowers, please send donations to Emmanuel Anglican Church (1300 E. Shaw #174, Fresno CA 93710), Fresno Rescue Mission (Box 1422 Fresno CA 93716-1122) or Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep Foundation. (sierrabighorn.org/donate or Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep Foundation PO Box 1183 Bishop CA 93515).
Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.whitehurstsullivan.com for the Matson family.
