I am very sorry to have to report to you that family members have informed the campus that Matthew Kalastro, an Information Technology Services web specialist for the Baskin School of Engineering, has died. Matthew, 39, passed away during a recent vacation.
For the past six years, Matthew has provided tremendous service to the School of Engineering, working as SoE's web programmer and division webmaster. While Matthew's position was transferred to ITS during the campus's information technology transformation last year, he remained assigned to SoE as a Local IT Specialist and continued his outstanding work as the school's webmaster.
Matthew was an enthusiastic and very knowledgeable web programmer whose service to the campus was not limited to the School of Engineering. He was an important contributor to a number of other campus web activities; for example, he designed and helped maintain the first version of the campus's Graduate Admissions Review Portal (GARP) in the 2003-2004 year.
A public memorial service for Matthew will take place next Saturday, August 4, at 2 p.m. in the Baskin Engineering Courtyard.
Matthew's family has also asked that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the UCSC Library's Buy-A-Book program to honor Matthew's love of reading. For more information, please go to: library.ucsc.edu/development/buyabook.html
Please join me in extending our very deepest condolences to Matthew's family members and to his many friends and colleagues, both on and off campus.
