Matthew Corey Freiberg
Matthew's obituary
Matthew Corey Freiberg, 58, of Petaluma, CA, passed away unexpectedly at home on September 2, 2024 . Matthew was born on May 20th, 1966 in San Jose, California, to Allan and Mary (Szczesny) Freiberg. He had three children: Corey, Shawn and Alexandra.
Matthew grew up in San Jose, and graduated from James Lick High School of San Jose, California. After high school, he joined the U.S. Navy and worked as a Navy corpsman, and lived at the Naval Base in San Diego, California. After the Navy, he settled in Santa Rosa, California. Finally, Matthew settled down in Petaluma in 2008.
After the Navy, Matthew worked for the Iron Workers Union Local 378, of Benicia, California, as an ironworker and welder, on buildings throughout the Bay Area. It was hard and sometimes dangerous work that often involved climbing skills. He was very proud of his work, especially how he helped to build the new Carquinez Bridge (specifically, the Alfred Zampa Memorial Bridge of 2003). This beautiful suspension bridge has a total span of 0.66 miles (1,060 m). He also was an ironworker building the Tesla/Solyndra Factory in Fremont, California. He was working there when President Obama came to see the factory in 2010. Matthew also was an ironworker on some avant-garde structures for Google in San Francisco, the Santa Rosa Junor College, and the parking garage in downtown Petaluma. These bridges and buildings will stand for hundreds of years as a testament to his workmanship.
Matthew loved woodworking, fishing at Clear Lake and the Russian River, hiking, and collecting antiques. Matthew also liked to cook hearty meals, and was especially good at barbecuing steak and burgers on the backyard grill. Matthew and his partner Irene also loved to travel together. Together the pair went as far as Australia to see the Solar Eclipse of 2012 in Cairn, as well as the Caribbean, and Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Matthew also traveled on his own to Columbia and Thailand.
Matthew loved animals, and would speak fondly of the chickens they had when he was growing up in San Jose, his first cat named Orange (because it was orange), and his parakeets Hulk, Dee and Runner. He also loved Giovanni (his girlfriend's cat) very much.
The last month of his life in August, Matthew seemed happy, and was working on garage sales and repairing his antique clocks. He was also looking forward to an upcoming vacation in Puerta Vallarta with his girlfriend.
In addition to his father and his three children already mentioned, Matthew will be remembered by his sister Angela Boles, Uncles Bob and Kenneth Freiberg, Aunt Debbie Paisner, and his longtime girlfriend, Irene Rowley. His mother Mary, and his brother Allan, Jr. both preceded him in death.
On any given day, Matthew had a big heart and would drop anything to help his family or others in need, and usually provided the food. His personality and voice was loud, and his laughter infectious to all who knew him.
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