August "Augie" Matthusen

August “Augie” Matthusen died unexpectedly on Sunday, February 25, 2024, at the age of 73. He was born in Chicago, Illinois, on June 25, 1950 to Frank and Lillian Matthusen and was raised in Humboldt Park, living in the house that his grandparents had bought, from which they operated their business, Matthusen Dairy. He was predeceased by his parents, and his sister, Francett Long.

Augie graduated from Lane Technical High School, an all boys school considered to be one of the top public schools in Illinois, where he met his best friend, Larry Kraut. He furthered his education at the University of Illinois at Chicago and obtained a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology and a master’s degree in Geological Sciences. In 1985, he relocated to Las Vegas to work as a geologist on the Yucca Mountain Project. He was employed by Science Applications International Corporation, Woodward-Clyde Federal Services, Bechtel SAIC, and USA Repository Services, retiring at the closure of the Project in 2010. It was during this time that he met his partner, Sandra, and they spent the past 30 years together as a couple.

In his younger days, his hobbies included archery, fishing, golf, camping, and hiking. He enjoyed reading, movies, traveling, especially visiting National Parks, and has probably driven down every dirt road in southern Utah because nothing gave him greater pleasure than looking at rocks. He traveled to Europe several times, toured castles in Wales and Scotland, visited Stonehenge, Paris, Barcelona, went to the London Olympics in 2012. He loved to cook and enjoyed a glass of whiskey, a dirty Martini, and an occasional shot of tequila.

We will miss his intelligence, his generosity, his cooking skills, his humor, and so much more. Augie had no children, but he treated Sandra’s family as his own, and was besotted with her granddaughter, Kaedynce, by whom he was affectionately known as “Grand-Augie”.

Augie is survived by his longtime partner, Sandra Trillo, and her family, Lauren, Derrick, and Kaedynce Adabashi, all of Las Vegas, his nieces, Noelle Olinger and Nicolette Ramos of Chicago, and his cousin, Carl Matthusen, of Tempe, Arizona.

Family flowers only, please, but donations kindly suggested to the National Kidney Foundation to potentially improve and extend the lives of others, as Augie’s own life was in 1999 when he received the gift of a kidney.

A funeral service for August will be held Tuesday, March 12, 2024 from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM at Palm Northwest Mortuary, 6701 North Jones Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89131, followed by a reception from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM.