Melanie Mattson

Mattson, Melanie M.

Born July 18, 1954 in Virginia, Minnesota

Died June 27, 2008 of indeterminate causes in Falls Church, Virginia

Melanie was formerly of St. Paul Park

She graduated from Park Senior High School, Cottage Grove, Minnesota in 1972, 4 ^th in her class, and from the University of Minnesota with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Music Performance in 1977. Melanie went on to graduate from the New England Conservatory of Music in 1979, and also attended the Catholic University in 2000-2002 for Theological Studies.

Melanie was a consummate performer; she was a member of the Park High School Bowl Team in national and international competition, she worked as a radio announcer for WOUM Radio in college, and as an announcer and a program director for Minnesota Public Radio in the 1970’s. She was a bassoonist in the orchestra for the National Opera at The Kennedy Center in the 1980’s and 90’s, as well as performing in numerous chamber groups and orchestras.

Melanie was also a skilled teacher, she taught music in Minnesota, North Carolina, and Washington D.C.

In her later years, she became a web designer and a political and social activist. She was a poet, a guest writer for numerous political websites as well as maintaining her own site, and was instrumental in developing a cutting-edge disaster-awareness website and database that is used by government agencies and epidemiologists around the world.

She was also an accredited lay-therapist for the Catholic Church.

Melanie is preceded in death by her father, Robert. She is survived by her mother Kathleen Mattson, of St. Paul Park; and her brothers Leigh A. Mattson of Pasadena, Maryland and Erik R. Mattson of River Falls, Wisconsin.