BATH — Nicholas Matluk Jr., of Scarborough, formerly of Bath, passed away on Friday, Nov 21, 2025 at the Maine Veterans’ Home in Scarborough.

Nick was born on November 23, 1946 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital, the first generation of Polish and Ukrainian immigrants. He grew up in Drexel Hill with his brother Bob and sister Karen and spent summers at Barnegat Bay, New Jersey. Throughout his life, he identified as a father first, Vietnam Corpsman second, and Catholic third.

In 1966, while attending night school at Temple University and expecting to be drafted, he enlisted in the Navy, believing a ship would be safer than the jungles of Vietnam. However, after boot camp, he and his entire company were sent to Navy Corpsman School, where he briefly served in the cardiopulmonary ward. Nick was finally assigned to H+S Company, 1st Battalion, 26th Marines and served in South Vietnam, specifically during the 77-day siege of Khe Sanh. On March 17, 1968 he shattered his leg dodging sniper fire. He denied a Purple Heart and continued his service until he was airlifted to U.S. Naval Hospital, Guam on March 23—he later recalled that the hardest thing he endured was being airlifted out, knowing that his brothers were still fighting. While working as a medic during his rehab, he delivered and resuscitated a newborn—an experience that rekindled his interest in medicine and shaped the course of his career.

Two moments profoundly shaped his service and religious beliefs: being asked to pray the Rosary with the family of a fallen soldier while on honor detail before deployment, and recovering the chalice a priest used during a field communion ceremony after he and several soldiers were killed in a brutal bombardment. The months Nick spent in Vietnam were the most formative of his life. He was proud of his service but also candid about the lasting damage it caused and the political manipulation he and others endured. After his sons were grown, he spoke openly about his PTSD and physical trauma and pushed for VA care long before such conversations were common. He came to terms with this time while writing his personal memoir, Papa Sahn.

After returning home, he studied respiratory therapy at one of the nation’s only two programs and went on to work in Neonatal Intensive Care, caring for the smallest patients. He spent 40 years as a respiratory therapist in PA, NJ, CT, and Maine until his retirement in 2011. Nick considered raising his four sons in Belfast, Maine, and his years at Waldo County General Hospital to be the crowning achievements of his professional and personal life. In retirement, he found joy volunteering for Habitat for Humanity and several charities in Bath, Maine. Nick and his family are grateful to the people of the Maine Veterans’ Home in Scarborough who cared for him during his final two years. Nick passed peacefully with his family on the evening of November 21.

He loved the outdoors, acting as Scout leader and taking his boys on many hiking and camping adventures. He will be remembered as a man who could fall asleep anywhere at any time, who was the slowest diner in a family of speed-eaters, who would laugh at any joke (the raunchier, the better), and who loved his family fiercely. He never laughed more than when his sons were all together, telling stories of their childhood adventures.

He is survived by his brother Bob (and wife Debbie) of Bayside, New Jersey; his four sons Nick, Bryan, Steve, and Kevin; his daughter-in-law, Stephanie, and his three grandchildren Jack, Lily, and Charlie.

Nick is floating on a kayak in the middle of a quiet lake in mid-coast Maine, with a fishing pole and a cocker spaniel, snoring softly. He has earned it.

For services details and to share your thoughts and condolences with the family, please visit www.desmondfuneralhomes.com