Noted Willmar physician dies at age 81

WILLMAR -- Dr. Donald Mattson, a longtime Willmar physician who also did extensive missionary and volunteer work, died Thursday at Bethesda Pleasant View Home in Willmar. He was 81.

Mattson spent four decades in medicine. He worked at a medical mission in Korea in the late 1950s and 1960s before coming in 1967 to Willmar, where he was one of the founding partners of Affiliated Community Medical Centers.

He was especially known for his volunteer work. After retiring from medicine, he became active in a Kiwanis International initiative to reduce iodine deficiency worldwide, personally helping raise more than $160,000 in Minnesota for the project.

Mattson also was an early supporter of the Rice Hospice program at Rice Memorial Hospital. He served as its medical director for 10 years; his wife, Marlys, directed the hospice volunteer program. The Mattsons donated the core funding that helped establish The Grief Center at Rice Hospital in 1995.

Funeral arrangements are pending with the Harvey Anderson Funeral Home in Willmar. Among the survivors are Mattson's wife, Marlys, and children.

Anne Polta