Edward "Ed" Mattis

Edward James Mattis, 79, passed away at his home on Thursday, February 16, 2023 after a long and valiant battle with cancer. Ed was born on April 13, 1943 in Des Moines, IA to Theresia (Johnson) and Edward Mattis. Ed graduated from East High School and Grand View College and attended Drake University. He was employed in the trucking industry for many years. He was also a gifted chef and he and his wife, Alyce, owned and operated a variety of restaurants over the years including Marcellas, The Trattoria, and Pasticceria. He later worked for Hamilton’s Funeral Home in his retirement years.

Ed is survived by his wife of 34 years, Alyce; sister, Donna Wright; his children, Marc (Janet) Mattis, Scott (Meredeth) Mattis and Kim Mattis; grandchildren, Erica (Dylan), Elik, Eliana, Jack and Caleb; sisters-in-law, Phyllis (Russ) Brandes, Lisa Jackson and Debbie (Bill) Dodge; brother-in-law, Allan (Linda) Reed; many nieces and nephews; and his eastside buddies and special friends, Marv and Rusty.

He was preceded in death by his parents, brother-in-law, Bob Wright and father and mother-in-law, Kenny and DonElla Reed.

A visitation will be held on Thursday, March 2, 2023 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Hamilton’s on Westown Parkway, 3601 Westown Parkway in West Des Moines, IA.

Memorial contributions may be directed to EveryStep Hospice and condolences expressed to the family at www.HamiltonsFuneralHome.com.

OUR DAD

I could write for days all of my thoughts and memories about my Dad, affectionately known as “The Edster” to myself, Kim and Marc.

I’m going to stick with some of the traits I believe defined him and that have been passed along to his kids, grandkids and many others who were lucky enough to spend time with him.

Edster’s work ethic was incredible, especially in his younger years. My earliest memories are of his time in the trucking industry. He was president and vice president of several truck leasing companies.
I believe he started with Hertz, but I remember him first being with Brown National Lease. I made many visits to the office with him and always loved playing there, whether it was with the stand up electric shoe buffer, the large globe that opened to display a mini bar or the airplane made out of Miller beer cans. I often used the office, it’s supplies and at the time their new technology that included a photocopier for my school work. To this day, I can’t walk into a heavy truck repair shop and not think of his office when I smell the heavy grease and tires. I won’t mention the eye-opening images included on the calendars and monthly industry magazines…it was a different time.

One of his other earlier professions was the purveyor of a chain of jewelry stores called Mr. Jewelry. He had locations in Valley West, Merle Hay, Southridge and Eastgate Malls locally. Thanks to family and friends he also had a few in New Mexico, Texas and Colorado for a time. Our basement always looked like the storeroom of a drug cartel thanks to the stacks and stacks of boxes filled with packages of brown paper wrapped bundles of jewelry!

Dad was always into cooking and enjoyed it immensely. During his time at Brown he was good friends with the owner Tom Brown as well as Fred Albright and Steve Copple. They formed a corporation called STEF Unlimited (or something along those lines) and opened a restaurant called Wall Street. It was located on the corner of University and 100th Street in the location now occupied by Nick’s Bar and Grill. I remember I was barely more than a toddler walking around on the unfinished dirt floors while they were still building it. This eventually branched out into another location called The Market that was located in the Howard Johnson’s hotel (now Mercy College) downtown.

At the same time they ventured into the concession business, taking over all of the concessions at Sec Taylor Stadium (now Principal Park) for the Iowa Oaks and then Iowa Cubs baseball games. Working in the candy stand was my first job when I was 9 or 10. The rest of the family worked there as well, along with some family friends and countless others. One of the benefits of working there besides unlimited pop and candy were catching Blue Angels, Golden Knights and Beach Boys shows. My siblings and I worked there off and on for many years even after the I Cubs took over the concessions for themselves. There were may long nights working in the glow of the yellow lightbulbs down there.

A little-known fun fact about him is that he was briefly the manager/promoter of a fledging country western singer named JR Richards. I don’t know much about it other than we had stacks and stacks of 45’s in our garage. He is not an act you probably ever saw or heard of and you won’t find a Wiki for him.

I know at one time he was engaged in at least 4 of these professions at once!

My dad loved to travel and have fun while doing it. Although his various ventures slowed down the traveling, he had gone to Portugal, Australia, England, France, Spain, Italy, Mexico, Hong Kong, Hawaii and many other amazing locales. He and his friends used to take yearly fly in fishing trips to Canada. They would take an RV and drive most of the way and then fly to the remote lake in small float planes. As you probably know, the most important provision he and his friends would bring is their alcohol. I’m not talking a few cases; I’m talking a few pallets! On at least one occasion they had to leave items behind because the plane couldn’t handle the weight. Pretty sure they would have left behind underwear and toilet paper before sacrificing their libations.

As an adult I have tried to give my children some of the same experiences such as The Badlands, Mount Rushmore, Casa Bonita, White Sands and Carlsbad Caverns. So they have him to blame for my Griswoldesque vacation planning!

After getting out of the businesses for a while, his love for cooking and the restaurant business showed when he and Alyce jumped in with both feet and bought Marcella's. I jumped in shortly thereafter as well. First helping paint and do other construction projects (I got to run a concrete saw for the first time!). I then started making pizzas using the big wood fired oven and at their encouragement eventually took over as kitchen manager. I loved cooking side by side with him on a busy weekend night. His calm and cool attitude always kept me from panicking, even when we were buried. I also enjoyed watching his near constant tinkering with off the menu items.

After Marcella's they opened the Trattoria downtown and also the Pasticceria next door. They became well known for their pizza, pasta and Downtown Farmer’s Market fares.

Into retirement, he still managed to work plenty and keep busy. He started wholesaling meat to his friends and fellow bar patrons and also made and sold packaged pasta dishes for use in bars. At the same time, he stayed busy working for Hamilton's with various duties that included making mail runs and deliveries all over town. Even when incapacitated he expressed disappointment with not being able to take care of his customers.

I’m proud to say that I have inherited my dad’s sense of humor. He was always good for a laugh and always ready to “play along”. It was tough to have a “down day” around him. Up until the last few days our family was still able to enjoy his quips and keep smiling to the end. Laughter makes every situation better.

Last but not least, my dad had a huge heart and was embarrassingly sentimental (not a bad thing). He would often tear up with pride when talking about his grandkids and about how much he loved us. Goodbyes were always tearful, especially the last few years when he knew time was limited. I won't go into details, but I have a bit of a reputation with my kids in the same vain. I also share his love of Christmas. I have dutifully practiced his form of excess when celebrating and buying presents for family. We have also tried to maintain faithfulness to newer traditions such as attending our Christmas Eve morning movie and Christmas Eve Sushi. Dad’s newest tradition, which we will continue, was having a Christmas Puzzle to have everyone share putting together during our Christmas Day festivities. He wanted everyone to have fun together instead of spending time on their phones. It worked exactly as he had hoped and he was still talking about it’s success almost two months later.

Ed was loved by everyone. He made very few enemies throughout his years and you would be hard pressed to find someone that would have a bad word to share about him.

His passing is a huge loss to his family and extended "family". It leaves a big hole in all of our hearts.

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