Los Altos teacher loved trees, kids Los Altos teacher loved trees, kids (December 24, 2004)

Matthew Heroux leaves behind pregnant wife

By Julie O'Shea

Matthew Heroux loved trees. He knew everything there was to know about oaks and redwoods.

Heroux, a Michigan native, loved a good adventure. And over the past couple of years, he tried to explore every inch of California.

He loved teaching. His students at Egan Junior High School inspired him, and he told his wife he wanted at least eight kids of his own.

She told him maybe three, and then they'd talk.

When Theresa Heroux became pregnant earlier this year, she said her husband was so thrilled he rushed around telling everyone the news, even the clerk at the grocery store.

Sadly, Heroux won't ever get a chance to meet his child, a girl, due to be born in May.

On Dec. 12, Heroux was killed after being struck by a commuter train heading into the Palo Alto Caltrain station. He was 31. The Santa Clara County Coroner's Office is still investigating the death.

However, friends and family said they know in their hearts that this was just a horrific accident.

"Matt found joy from the simple things in life that most people take for granted," Heroux's older brother, Chris, wrote in an e-mail to the Voice. "He loved California and the beauty one can find here."

Heroux's wife, Theresa, who teaches special-needs children in San Jose, said she and her husband would take long walks each evening after work.

"He was extremely happy," Theresa said. "He loved teaching, but when he was done with work, he just wanted to come home to me."

Instead of drawing up the next day's lesson plans at night, Matthew Heroux would get up each morning at 4:30 a.m. to prepare and grade papers, his wife said. He'd taught science at Egan Junior High for the past two years, commuting from San Jose to the Los Altos campus on Caltrain. The school is planning to plant a tree in his honor sometime next year.

As for Theresa Heroux, she said she knows she will one day return to the East Coast, where most of her family still lives. She is planning to bury some of her husband's ashes near her home there so she has a place to visit him. But, she added, she isn't planning to leave before her daughter is born.

"Matt wanted a California baby," she explained. And so, she will stay and give her husband one last wish.

"To be honest, it really doesn't seem real," Theresa said. "He was a wonderful person. ... Now he is in a better place in heaven."

In addition to his wife, Theresa and brother, Chris, Heroux is also survived by his parents, Marie and Richard; another brother, Brett; sisters-in-law, Natalie and Shirley Heroux and niece and nephews, Nika, Alec and Josh Heroux.

E-mail Julie O'Shea at joshea@mv-voice.com

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