I met Matt during our first year of grad school at the Univ of Illinois and we immediately hit it off as we had a couple of things in common. For one, we liked to make fun of the physics geeks in our first year class (of course we were the super cool physics grad students). More importantly, we had girlfriends for whom we quickly realized we wanted to transfer from Illinois after our first year - he back to the West Coast and me to the East Coast. In particular, Matt was always bragging about this awesome girl named Jen that he knew he would someday marry :) .
I have so many memories of Matt from Illinois, but some of the main images that come to mind are: Runner’s World, Minnesota Vikings, phone calls with girlfriends, Newsweek, sugar cookies, running/swimming, last minute homework, Republicans, stories about Harvey Mudd and Claremont McKenna, him passing the Qual Exam as a 1st year (unheard of), dreams about starting businesses, and dressing up as Wayne and Garth from Wayne’s World for Halloween (he was hysterical as Garth). We developed a lifelong friendship in that one year at Illinois.
We stayed in close touch thereafter and a few years later ended up marrying our girlfriends (Matt was right – both about Jen being awesome and him marrying her!) . Despite being poor grad students we flew across country to attend each others weddings – memories of him sleeping in the tiny closet of our apartment and us staying in a Cal Tech dorm room (still not sure how he arranged that). Then came finishing up our theses, sharing ideas for inventions/businesses (his were always better), swapping BCG and McKinsey case interviews, and exchanging stories and details about our startups and how we just missed the bubble.
One conversation we had about our ventures that has always stuck with me is that after I said I was hoping mine would be successful enough so that I could retire a bit early he said he wanted an exit that enabled him to buy an island! In other words, why think small when you can think big.
A consummate entrepreneur, a dedicated husband, and a loving and proud father,
Matt was one of the most unique, impressive, and special people I have known – outgoing, brilliant, goofy, genuine, confident, caring, brutally honest, principled, inspiring, and funny.
Abbie and Luke, please know that your dad will always be with you as he has certainly passed along many of his incredible gifts to you.
With prayers and deepest sympathies,
Chris Koeppen