MATT DORAN

Matt joined us in our junior year. You may remember him for the big scar that ran up the left side of his face. Or you may not remember him at all.

Matt sat with Richard, Dave and I at lunch in junior year. He was a nice guy. I don't recall where his family came from. And I'm sure one of us would have asked him how he got that scar. I don't honestly remember his answer though. But I have a vague memory of him telling us that it was from a dog attack. I could be wrong though.

I had Matt in Ms. Neveau's speech class that year. On Fridays, we would sometimes play charades. Richard and I would coax Matt into giving subtle clues that only we could decipher - clues for plural or apostropies and such. He was a natural. Our teams always kicked ass.

One thing I'll never forget about Matt is that he once told us that he had a few mutant hairs around his nipple area that actually grew to be several inches long, and would hang down to his belly button. Why he let them grow that long is a mystery. But he did say that he cut them, and continued to, so that it never happened again. Strange.

That year, Richard had some sort of half-baked idea that all of us needed to go see the G.L.O.W. girls when they came to Milwaukee. G.L.O.W. stood for Gorgeous Ladies Of Wrestling. Richard was obsessed with them. The rest of us had a mild interest. We all said that we'd go. But it never happened.

If memory serves, Matt worked as a dishwasher at Kurtz' on Memorial Drive.

Matt once loaned me his tape of Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" album, so I could copy the song "Iron Man."

In our senior year, I had little contact with Matt. He became really good friends with Jerry Legreve. I think the two of them planned to be roommates in college as well. On our senior video, the two of them did some sort of parady of Bartles & Jaymes.

I have not seen Matt since graduation. I suspect he did go to college, as he was pretty bright. I think he's lived most of his post high school life in Green Bay - where he resides today. To my knowledge, he has never married.

UPDATE - 8/15/06 - A few days ago, this photo was sitting in Erin Hynek's junk drawer. Today it's online. This is Erin and Matt playing air guitar at the 15-year class reunion. Matt looks like he just flew in from Key West.