In Memoriam

Michael F. Mattia, Jr.

Music Faculty, 1978-1987; 2002-2021 In Memoriam

On December 29, 2021, Green Vale lost a beloved icon within the faculty and pivotal figure in the lives of countless students. As ensemble band director and instrument teacher, Mattia relished bringing the joy and discipline of colla borative music to students with vastly differing skills and talents, engendering an appreciation for the contributions of each instrument, each note, and each musician. Bi-annual concerts made the absolute most of each ensemble's skills, thanks to custom arrangements Mattia composed according to each set of students.

His own talents as a trumpeter, pianist, composer and director were amply deployed throughout his life both in school settings and within countless bands over five decades. He played at the weddings of several Green Vale teachers and alumni. Colleagues cite his remarkable humility, and motivations that were purely focused on bringing joy to others. Cathy Iannotta, a friend for 21 years, says: “Mr. Mattia's humor, compassion, and talent made each student feel inspired. He connected with students and was able to bring out their musical ability in a fun and caring way.” A graduate of St. Francis Prep., he went on to Syracuse University, where he studied music, and later C.W. Post, where he received his master’s degree in education. He leaves behind his son, Michael, his sister, Michelle, two granddaughters, three nieces and nephews, and countless current and former students.

Priscilla Johnson McMillan '43

Priscilla Johnson McMillan (born Priscilla Mary Post Johnson, 1928-2021) was a journalist, author, historian, and noted expert in Russian language and culture. She was an advisor and friend to Senator John F. Kennedy before serving as a newspaper reporter in Moscow, where she interviewed Lee Harvey Oswald extensively about his beliefs and desire to defect to the Soviet Union.

She was the only individual who personally knew both President Kennedy and his killer. In Moscow, Oswald told McMillan that he had a life mission: “I want to give the people of the United States some thing to think about.” Four years later, as McMillan followed news coverage of the assassination, McMillan was astonished. “My God,” she said, “I know that boy!”

Thanks to her language skills and prior meetings with Oswald, she became close friends with Oswald’s Russian widow, Marina, and published one of the most definitive accounts of Oswald’s planning of the assas sination: Marina and Lee: The Tormented Love and Fatal Obsession Behind Lee Harvey Oswald's Assassination of John F. Kennedy.

The New York Times Book Review called it “a miraculous book…McMillan had the wit, courage and perse verance to go back to the heart of the story, and the art to give it life.” Upon a re-release in 2013, Publishers Weekly called it a "classic of the JFK assassination literature.” She went on to write and edit numerous articles on post-Soviet Russia and nuclear policy. She was granted high-level access to Los Alamos National Laboratory for her acclaimed biography of Robert Oppenheimer. In 1967, McMillan translated the memoirs of Svetlana Alliluyeva, Stalin's daughter, after she defected to the United States. In fact, Svetlana spent her first months in America at McMillan’s father’s Locust Valley estate. Other noteworthy friends included Truman Capote (who wrote about her) and John Lewis, whose engagement party she hosted.

Her later years were spent in her beloved Cambridge, where she was a community activist and headed a sort of intellectual salon until shortly before her death. After Green Vale, Priscilla attended Brearley, Bryn Mawr, and earned a master's in Russian studies at Radcliffe College (Harvard University). She is survived by her nephew Stuart H. Johnson III ’68, among others.

Priscilla McMillan (left) and Marina Oswald (right) in 1964. (Published in The Atlantic, 2013)