Austin Mattison

AUSTIN WAYNE MATTISON

December 12, 1996 ~ August 28, 2015

Above all, he loved. He loved to laugh, he loved to smile, he loved to draw, he loved all his hobbies. He loved life.

There was one thing you knew right away about Austin when you met him: he loved a good laugh. He constantly practiced facial expressions and intonations from the time he was little. As he got older he started to explore life as fully as he could. When he was little he swam so much we all thought he was a fish, and since then he's learned to surf, snorkeled, and went to Seaworld countless times. He had an incredible imagination, and drew on life to inspire it.

Before he could read he watched educational movies every day, and after he learned to read he was constantly reading books about animals, robots, science, computers, and of course books about jokes. He became proficient at game programming and was thinking about going to college for computer animation. He was good at math. Another degree he was considering was mechanical engineering.

He learned to cook as a young child, beginning with chocolate chip cookies (which he loved his whole life and probably still does), and eventually making homemade pizza, ice cream, donuts, even Twinkies. He was proud of his roasts, and they were delicious. He loved candy and bubblegum. Halloween was always fun for him.

Among other hobbies and accomplishments, he became proficient at fishing, being a magician, won a talent show competition at the Syracuse 11th Ward Gong Show, was successful at bodybuilding, making movies, programmed a Lego Mindstorm robot, trampoline tumbling (ask his boss!), snowboarding, street and mountain biking, horsemanship, building and designing RC airplanes, creating computer games, and even doing impressions of movie and TV characters.

Being bored was not an option for Austin. He achieved the rank of Eagle Scout in the Boys Scouts of America organization. He took a cartooning class from Br. Bagley. He absolutely loved to draw. An almost daily occurrence was Austin presenting a new comic, drawing, joke, or other performance. He was diligent at reading the scriptures, conference talks, and studying the gospel. An idea he posed to Br. Bagley was accepted for the comic page in the July 2015 New Era.

More recently, in the last few months, Austin was preparing for college by continuing his education on his own. He was working through pre-calculus, taking electric, acoustic, classical guitar and ukulele lessons, read the classics, ran five miles when before he'd never even run one, was good at English and working on making it even better, teaching himself Spanish, and saving up by working at Sky Trampoline Arena. He received a scholarship to Weber, and was considering degrees in animation, engineering, and maybe even becoming an astronaut one day. He wanted to be a BIG business man, and studied economics, and was trying to be politically aware (imagine the jokes!), and studied the Constitution. Finally, he was studying Preach My Gospel and was diligently working on his testimony.

Other things that Austin found fun were the Lego Movie, video games, Connect Four, chess, biographies, non-fiction books, astronomy, green birthday cakes, pie, motor cycling, and he LOVED roller coasters and went to some of the biggest parks in the US. The last books that we know he read were The Animal Farm, The BFG, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl while on vacation at his brother Brett's.

This is Austin Wayne Mattison, born 1996 on December 12th, and leaving this earth on August 28, 2015.

He will be missed, and forever loved.

Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Fridat, September 4, 2014 at the West Point 16th Ward Chapel, 4383 West 300 North.  The family will meet with friends Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m. at Lindquist's Roy Mortuary, 3333 West 5600 South and Friday from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. at the church.

Interment, West Point Cemetery.