Matthew “Matt” A. Diethelm Jr.

PHOENIX – Matt, also known as “Cricket” by his family and childhood friends, passed away on July 27th, 2018 surrounded by his loving family. Matt was born to Matthew and Wanda Diethelm on December 17th, 1960 in El Paso, TX. He was given the nickname “Cricket” as Wanda had bouts of hiccups during pregnancy. The nickname stuck and to all his Aunts, Uncles, cousins and childhood friends he was affectionately known as Cricket. The family moved from Daytona Beach, FL to Phoenix when Matt was 7 years old. He graduated from Cortez High School in 1979 and received a B.S. in Computer Science from Arizona State University in 1986. He was employed by Sperry which later merged with Honeywell, from 1986-2007. He was awarded with a Technical Achievement and Engineer and Scientist award for helping to design DEOS, a real-time operating system for avionics platforms. In 2008 Matt worked for Kutta Technologies working on underground mining communication software and in 2009 Matt went to work for DDC-I, who had bought the DEOS operating system. He loved being a software engineer and his co-workers who were also friends outside of work. He always had a hunger for more knowledge, coding languages and all things technical. He used to read coding language books at night sometimes reading aloud to his wife, Elizabeth, to help her sleep… Matt had a full and adventurous life traveling the world with his family and friends. He loved to go on epic mountain bike rides and snowboard trips with his longtime thrill-seeking friends. He went on motorcycle tours around Europe and New Zealand with his wife, mountain biked around Turkey with friends, went on Safari in Africa with his Dad, London with his Mom and multiple trips to France with his family. He loved taking road trips with Elizabeth and his dog, Daisy. In fact, many vacations were decided on whether or not he could take Daisy. Matt enjoyed weekly Thursday dinners at Durant’s – known as “Boys Night Out” he enjoyed the lively banter between his brother Dan, Tom Wilmer (who he considered his second brother), Dad, and various other friends who joined at their table from time to time. Sunday’s were also special to him as he would go to Dan’s garage (Pee-Wee’s Playhouse) to watch man sports and tell “tall tales” as he liked to say. Matt was an extraordinary person. Intelligent, patient, caring and kind. He loved to help people and was often busy as a part-time IT person to his family and friends. People often said that they felt comfortable and instantly liked him within minutes of meeting him. He was frequently told by his wife that he was the BEST. HUSBAND. EVER. He loved animals and was often heard talking endearingly to his cats Chili and Sparky and there were many snuggles with his furry favorite girl, Daisy. Matt is survived by his wife of 22 years and best friend for 30 years, Elizabeth, his fur kids Daisy dog, Sparky and Chili, his mother and father Wanda and Matt Diethelm Sr., Brother Dan and wife Karen, Father and Mother-in-law Neal and Joan Conway and Aunts, Uncles and Cousins in Texas, Idaho and Washington. He wanted to give a special thank you to his neighbors of 27 years Tom and Jan Taylor for allowing him to have so many adventures by taking care of his fur kids and being such wonderful neighbors. A celebration of his life is being planned for family and friends so that “tall tales” can be told at a later date. Because of his love for animals, please consider donating in his honor to the Arizona Humane Society. Visit hansenmortuary.com for online condolences.