Mr. Kenneth Matson, age 88, died on Monday, Feb. 4, after a long illness. He had been a resident of Duxbury for the past 29 years.

Mr. Matson was born in Savannah, Ga. He lived most of his childhood and adolescence in Chicago and Gary, Ind. In 1939 he enrolled in the University of Michigan, but left after his sophomore year to join the Army Air Corps. Trained as a bomber pilot in B-24’s he flew overseas, first to England, then to Africa, until he was shot down on a raid over Wiener Neustadt, Austria in the fall of 1943. He spent the rest of the war in a German prison camp, Stalag Luft III, then located in German territory, but now once again a part of Poland.

After the war Mr. Matson returned home and married his Michigan classmate, Ms. Molly Hoffman. He then began working in the lumber industry, eventually joining the sales division of the Georgia-Pacific Corporation where he worked for over 25 years until his retirement in 1985. His true passion, however, was music. He was an accomplished musician, playing oboe and English horn in ad hoc chamber groups and local orchestras from the Boston Philharmonic to an orchestra of retired musicians that met weekly at Massasoit College. He was also especially fond of the Friday night sessions of the Harvard Musical Society’s sight-reading orchestra.

Mr. Matson leaves his wife Molly and three children, Lucy of Germantown, Md., Kate of Arlington and Martha of Santa Cruz, Calif. He also leaves five grandchildren. A memorial service will be held in the spring.