Obituary of Floyd J. Matos

At the request of the family, masks will be required to be worn if attending the visitation. Please be respectful of this request. Visitors will be reminded upon entering the funeral home.

Florian John Matos, known to most as Floyd, died suddenly and peacefully in his Commack home on May 1st, 2022, at 90 years of age. Born and raised in Ridgewood, Queens to John and Mary Matos, Floyd was the first of 3 children, including sisters Mary Joan and Betty Ann. A child of the depression and World War II, he proudly served in the Navy during the Korean War, achieving the rank of Petty Officer, 1st Class. He married Dolores Thall in 1953 with whom he shared 57 years of life, enjoying their mutual love of travel, camping, cruising, and raising their 3 children, Margaret, Patricia, and Eileen. Providing a quality education to their children was one of their most important priorities, incurring significant personal debt to send their daughters to excellent women's colleges. They were blessed with 6 grandchildren: Nicole, Charles, Danielle, Susan, Justin, and Callie. Floyd lived long enough to welcome and thoroughly enjoy his great grandchild, Sofia.

As a teenager, Floyd worked for an uncle who ran a printing press. Following his 4 year stint in the Navy, Floyd secured a job with Alfred M Best, and a few years later, McGraw Hill Publishing Company, where he worked as a production manager in the classified ad department. Part of his job was to pick the fonts and design the layout for postings in the classified sections of professional magazines, such as Business Week, Medical World News, and Architectural Record. He took up calligraphy and was responsible for the creation of many important program covers, wedding and birth announcements, and cards. An early explorer of all things computer-related, Floyd led his department in its transition to the digital age.

A lover of music, Floyd played the clarinet in high school, and sang in a barbershop quartet. He played classical music at home and encouraged all of his daughters to sing and play guitar. Coupled with Dolores's passion for big band and swing, it was a musical household. He was a loyal attendee to the many concerts in which his daughters and grandchildren were performing.

Floyd was a voracious reader, enjoying history, science fiction, philosophy, religion, and poetry. Biweekly family excursions to the public library (often followed by ice cream cones at Friendly's, instilled the same love of books and reading to his children. He loved trains, steam engines in particular, and spent many happy hours working on model train lay-outs and being a virtual train dispatcher via computer simulation games. He loved the sea, even though he couldn't swim, and bravely sailed with Dolores on her beloved Sunfish, and with Pat and Jorge on their various vessels.

With his sense of adventure, he convinced his young family to give camping a try, resulting in summer trips to many of America's most beautiful National Parks: Rocky Mountain, Grand Teton, Yellowstone, Glacier, Shenandoah, and Canada's Banff and Jasper Parks. Eventually, the preferred summer destination was Acadia and Mount Desert Island, Maine, where Floyd and Dolores set up their tent trailer on site B10 at The Mount Dessert Campground on Somes Sound. Many of these trips were shared with their life-long friends, Joan and Bob Krieg. After the camping trips ended, Dolores and Floyd enjoyed taking escorted tours of Europe, and many cruises.

Floyd retired after 25 years with McGraw Hill. When not spending time with his grandchildren, Floyd kept in touch with family and friends via hand-written letters, mail, Facebook, and texts. He wrote and published an autobiography entitled A Measure to be Filled. Diagnosed with type 1 diabetes as he left the Navy, Floyd's active and full life was a blueprint for how to live with a chronic and potentially life -threatening illness. He transitioned to using an insulin pump 15 years ago and to using a continuous glucose monitor that he and his physician daughter Pat could follow on their smart phones.

In the final months of his life, Floyd was able to remain in the comfort of his home in Commack with the skilled and compassionate assistance of his aide, Dorrell McKenzie, for whom his entire family will be forever grateful.

With lifelong love and loyalty to his wife, his children and grandchildren, and to his country, Floyd enjoyed a full and long life well lived. He will be missed and remembered by all who had the good fortune to have shared his path in life. May his memory be a blessing.

Floyd was the recipient of wonderful care and services from the incredible people of the Visiting Nurse Service and Hospice of Suffolk, Inc., enabling him to stay in his home until his death. In lieu of flowers, donations to Visiting Nurse Service and Hospice of Suffolk, or the Smithsonian Institute, in Floyd's memory, would be greatly appreciated.