Matt Kelly passed away quickly last January 22, 2022 at the age of 55 after a very short time with a very aggressive cancer. He was full of grace, smiles, laughs, and emotional gifts until the very end. His last days were spent at home surrounded by friends and family.
Matt served the ManKind Project in a an array of roles, including as the Center Director for the Colorado Center in the mid 2000s, as a multi-term Board Member in MKP USA, as a Certified Full Leader and Leader Trainer for the New Warrior Training Adventure, as the Leader Trainer Chair of the North American Leader Body, as a Member of the Curriculum Committee of MKP USA, and a co-creator of the Men’s Work 3 Week Introduction and the Men’s Work Crossroads courses. Matt was a pragmatic, loving, supportive, and fierce advocate for men’s work.
As Leader Trainer Chair and a Full Leader in the ManKind Project, Matt was passionate about assisting men in progressing on Leader Track. MKP USA is honored to launch the Matt Kelly National Leader Track Fund to assist men who need financial assistance in moving forward in their study following in Matt’s footsteps of leading NWTAs and Leader Trainings. The fund is created to provide up to $250 per man, per year, to be used for the ManKind Project Leadership trainings.
He is survived by his wife, Cheri; his son, Malcolm; and his sisters: Florence (Flossie) and her husband, John; and Julia and her husband, Joe, and son, Eric.
This InMemori page, created by Cheri Kelly, is intended to collect your testimonials: a message, a memory, an anecdote or a photo, illustrating a moment of life. Please post something, we would love to hear stories and see photos from different parts of Matt’s life and afterwards we will be able to make a book to keep.
Please feel free to include photos of yourself with Matt! Just click on the word “Tributes” in the upper left corner of this page to get started.
Information about his Celebration of Life is shown below.
Friday October 7th in Durango, Colorado
Everyone is welcome. RSVPs are not necessary but would be helpful so we can get an idea of how many people to expect. *When you post, please use the 1st line to tell us how many people will be attending (O if you are not attending) so that it is easier for us to get a quick count. Thank you.
While we would love to see you in person, we know and understand that this won’t work for everyone. We do plan to set up a way to Zoom in to the service – stay tuned – You will be able to access this by clicking on the green “See Broadcast” link that appears below with the ceremony information. Malcolm and I have received so much love and support from so many of you in so many varied and beautiful ways. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
Your ongoing love and connection are all we need now.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out, even if you feel you don’t know what to say; don’t worry, there is no right or wrong. We both receive joy, connection, and healing by talking to you about Matt or anything else.
With Love and Life, Cheri
(celebrantcheri@gmail.com)
P.S. (my little bit of grassroots activism): For those who are interested (as I am) in improving our culture’s relationship with death and with practices that are much less harmful to the Earth than burial and cremation, I offer the following information and welcome talking with anyone about such matters: Matt’s body was cared for at home by Malcolm and me which helped us achieve peace, closure, and healing. He was not taken away to a funeral home and traditional funeral services were not utilized. His body was converted to nutrient rich soil through Natural Organic Reduction (NOR, also known as human composting) thanks to the amazing services of Recompose (https://recompose.life). The majority of his soil is now being used to help regenerate a legally protected natural wilderness (Bells Mountain) in southern Washington State.
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