Our father, grandfather and great grandfather peacefully passed away on August 30, 2023 in Pleasant Grove, Utah at the age of 80. He was born on January 13, 1943 in the small town of Broadus, Montana to Walter Albert Mattson and Violet Mae Pierce Mattson. He lived on a ranch with his family until the age of 11 when the family moved to a small home in Spearfish, South Dakota.

He met his eternal companion Beverly Beagley while they were both serving missions in California. They were married on September 1, 1967 in the Salt Lake City Temple and started married life where John attended college, buying the same little house from his parents.

John was on the wrestling team at Black Hills State University, went to school full time and worked as an insurance agent. As if that wasn’t enough, he was then called to serve as the Branch President in Belle Fourche. He graduated with his Bachelor’s Degree in May of 1969, the same month his first child was born.

Three years later the branch became a ward and dad was called to be the Bishop. He was released in 1978 and he and mom packed up and moved to American Fork, Utah where the last two of their 7 children were born.

He worked in Real Estate for many years. Soon after moving to American Fork, he was called as a counselor in the American Fork stake presidency for 11 years. He was completely committed to the gospel of Jesus Christ, and other than his family, everything else was an unnecessary distraction.

He is preceded in death by his parents, a brother Walter (who died as a baby), a brother, Marvin Mattson from the Black Hills, who passed away August 6, 2022 and his sister Linda Vaught who just recently passed on June 8, 2023 in Billings, MT.

He is survived by his wife, Beverly, his 7 children, Kirk (Valerie) Mattson of Draper, Gina (Quin) Walker of Deadwood, South Dakota, Angie (Kent) Berntsen of Spanish Fork, Joseph (Caytee) Mattson of Santaquin, Jacob (Emily) Mattson of Santa Clara, Camille Mattson of American Fork and Candace (Keith) Joseph of Sandy. He has 24 grandchildren (8 grandsons and 16 granddaughters), 5 great grandchildren.

He is also survived by his sister Luella Williamson of Pleasant Grove and his 20 nieces and nephews who live all over the country. He always knew where the cousins lived and how they were doing, and it filled him with incredible pride and joy when he was able to be a part of their lives.

Dad loved horses, the mountains, cars, animals, archaeology, sports, BYU, books, walking every day, and anything to do with the Native American culture. He loved a good “rummage sale”, as they say in South Dakota.

Dad had 2 great loves that gave him the most purpose in life. First was his family. He loved our mother more than anything. He loved his children and showed it by his actions. His second great love was for his Savior. Dad’s testimony and commitment to the gospel was more important than any amount of success. Until his last day, he was a life-long missionary, and he took every single opportunity to share the gospel with as many people as he possibly could.

We love you dad, and we will miss you every day until we see you again. Because of what you taught us, we don’t have to worry about where you are, and we know you will be close. We know that you will be extremely busy on the other side of the veil.

We want to thank the staff at Alpine Care Center in Pleasant Grove for their incredible acts of service they provided to dad. We also acknowledge Ability Hospice for their outstanding service, compassion and love they showed to all of us. Thank you Stephanie, McKella, and Riley.

Funeral Services will be held on Thursday, September 7th at 11:00 a.m. at the American Fork 9th Ward at 673 E 300 N in American Fork, with a short viewing period from 9:30 a.m to 10:45 a.m. There will also be a viewing held at Anderson Mortuary in American Fork on Wednesday, September 6th from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, please consider donating toward the funeral services on John's obituary page at andersonmortuary.com.