Debra Pajula, left, co-president of Beta Sigma Chapter, with Kay Mattson, the recent recipient of Delta Kappa Gamma Michigan State Organization’s Lifetime Service Award.

By Debra Pajula

For The Daily News

KINGSFORD — The Beta Sigma Chapter of The Delta Kappa Gamma Society International honored Katherine “Kay” Mattson of Kingsford as a recipient of the DKG Michigan State Organization’s Lifetime Service Award at its Oct. 9 meeting in Rapid River.

The award recognizes members for their long-time commitment and contributions to education and to DKG.

Mattson has 35-plus years of her lifelong career dedicated to the education of children and 35 years of commitment to the DKG society. She was initiated in 1986 into DKG UP’s Delta Chapter. After moving to Kingsford, she transferred to Beta Sigma Chapter and was welcomed as an active member of the hostess committee.

Mattson has proved to be a valuable member of Beta Sigma, bringing her experience and background to the group. She is always willing to help and assist wherever she is needed and her help at Beta Sigma’s outdoor meetings during COVID-19 was greatly appreciated.

She also sews and donates beautiful handbags, which the group has been raffling off at their meetings to help fund Beta Sigma’s “school/teacher support projects.”

Mattson’s received her bachelor of science degree in elementary education from Northern Michigan University. For the first years she taught in a first-grade classroom in Fraser in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula. She claims to have learned much about teaching from all of those 6-year-olds.

After marriage, Mattson moved back to the U.P. and taught first grade for the Gwinn School District, and ultimately began teaching for the Marquette School District, where she taught reading for 30-plus years.

Now retired, she was a talented, creative, dedicated teacher who excelled in the teaching of reading to her students.

She was a leader in her field and her kind helping ways made her a mentor to many co-workers. She has an incredible work ethic., enjoys quilting, calligraphy, reading and to quote her, “walking for the health of it.”

She enjoys being retired and having the time to say “yes” to new things and activities.

Mattson has done much volunteering throughout her life and is currently a volunteer with the Dickinson County Cancer Unit and Hospice and her church.

In her personal life, she was raised on a dairy/potato farm in Felch Township. She and her husband, Larry Mattson, also from Felch, were married for 47 years until his death in 2011. They raised their two sons, Kurt and Scott, in the Marquette area.

DKG is an honorary international organization of key woman educators that promotes professional and personal growth of women educators and excellence in education. The Beta Sigma Chapter includes members from Michigan’s Dickinson, Delta, Menominee, and neighboring Wisconsin’s Marinette, Oconto, and Florence counties.