Matthew John LeClaire

Matthew John LeClaire died at home in Anchorage April 13, 2015. He had just turned 58. He was born in Melrose, Minnesota, on April 4, 1957. He had lived in Alaska since the early 1980s.

Our friend Matt was a very generous and talented person. He would give his last dime to anyone who asked. He would meet you on the road and then run back to his house to bring you his smoked salmon. He would always give all of his fish away, including sending packages of all kinds of fish to his family and friends in Minnesota. Fishing was his favorite activity. Every picture of him shows him holding a fish with a big smile on his face.

He was a master carpenter and built many homes, businesses and cabins around the state, from Nome and Kotzebue to Dillingham, McCarthy, Lake Louise, Chickaloon and Homer. Barrel roofs or challenging angles were easy for him. An absolute perfectionist, he would accept nothing less. This trait often made it hard for him to work with others.

Matt had a great talent of picking up things like driftwood and making it into beautiful furniture — or finding a log half-chewed by a beaver and making it into a one-of-a kind floor lamp. He made dozens of tables, lamps and benches and other things from these found items and would give them all away. He had a knack for seeing what these pieces of wood could be and made them into works of art.

Surviving are his brother, Jesse LeClaire of New Munich, Minnesota; sister, Joyce Mohs of Melrose, Minnesota; and daughter, Erin LeClaire of Wasilla.

We will miss his sense of humor and adventurous spirit. We will miss our friend. Just remember when you think of him that now he is fishing every day under sunny skies with his brother Mark.

Arrangements were made by Cremation Society of Alaska.