Matthew P. Ketchum

MATTHEW PHILLIP KETCHUM April 5, 1952- August 4, 2011 Matthew was known for his keen, dry wit, his ability to tell a good story and his generosity of spirit. He passed away unexpectedly on August 4, 2011 and will continue to be loved by the many people who have known and admired him over the years. Matthew Phillip Ketchum, Matthew to his family and Matt to most of his friends, was born in Denver, Colorado, on April 5, 1952. He was the third of four children born to Milo S. Ketchum and Gretchen Allenbach Ketchum. He spent his first 10 years living near Cheeseman Park in Denver, where he attended Dora Moore Elementary School. His favorite pastimes were riding his bicycle, chasing butterflies, swimming at White Sands Beach Club in the summer and playing with sister, Marcia, and his brothers, David and Mark as well as the many neighborhood children. At ten years old, his family moved to Old Saybrook, Connecticut where he began sailing on Long Island Sound with his father and brothers and became interested in boat building. He, his father and younger brother, Mark, had a boat building shop in their back yard where they spend many hours designing and building the boats they would eventually sail in the Connecticut River and on Long Island Sound. At the same time, Matthew, Mark, and a small group of friends became interested in flying gas powered model airplanes. Whenever one of their many planes crashed, they would rebuild and go right back out to fly it again. Matthew attended Old Saybrook High School where he was a member of the concert band, the dance band and chorus. He was a base drummer and always provided the beat when the band marched and played the double base in the dance band. He also played the viola and played in the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Youth Orchestra and the All Connecticut Orchestra. He graduated in 1970 and went to Hiram College in Ohio for a year and a half, after which he attended the University of Vermont where he majored in English Literature and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1974. While at UVM he also began his study of Japanese woodworking and design. Woodworking continued to be his passion. After working for an antique restorer for two years, he opened his own shop in Storrs, Connecticut, where he began designing and building fine furniture. In 1982 he moved to Denver, Colorado, where he became known for his extraordinary ability to work with wood. His legacy lives on in pieces of his fine furniture throughout Denver homes. Family and his nephews meant the world to him. Emails can be sent to msbaird49@comcast.net. ""I am done with great things and big things, great institutions and big success, and I am for those tiny, invisible molecular moral forces that work from individual to individual, creeping through the crannies of the world like so many rootlets, or like the capillary oozing of water, yet which if you give them time, will rend the hardest monuments of man's pride."" William James