LESTER MATCHINSKE
1953-1980
He was born in 1953 in Chicago, Illinois. He had two younger sisters, Janice and Pamela. When he was a child he mowed lawns and shoveled snow. His first paying job was helping farmers cut hay in the summer.
He went to a very large school in Illinois. He moved to Engadine Consolidated Schools when he was in the ninth grade. In grade school he walked and in high school he drove to school. John Kennedy was president when he was in fifth grade. Lester wore cotton dress shirts and jeans. When Martin Luther King Jr. was shot, he had to run home because of the riots in Chicago.
He took math and drafting when he was in school, but his favorite class was math. Since he didn’t have a computer he figured things out by himself.
He played basketball, football, hockey and baseball for sports, but he was really good at baseball. When he played sports, at the end of his senior year, he got the all sportsmanship award. His favorite sports team was the Chicago Bears. His favorite band was C.C.R. He read sport magazines, car magazines, and all the Hardy Boys books, which he collected, along with old coins. His favorite T.V. show was MASH, and his favorite breakfast cereal was oatmeal. A candy bar cost him 15 cents, and it cost $2.00 to go to a movie at 16, when he went on his first date.
In his spare time he liked to read, fish and spend time with his daughters. His favorite traditions were spending Sundays with his grandparents or with his in-laws. He got married in 1973 in the Engadine Catholic Church and was married for six and one half years. He had two daughters, Dawn born in 1976 and Deanna born in 1979. He built houses and was a surveyor for the state highway. One of his wife’s favorite memories of him was teasing his father in-law and when he would play cards with him. One thing better in the "good old days" was Lester could spend more time with his family. His goals for the future were to raise his family and retire young.
Kris Kerbersky
Fifth Grade
Engadine Elementary School
Thanks to Jeanne Matchinske for sharing information about Lester Matchinske, her husband, to make this biography possible.
