Vietnam veteran Matthew Turner used his genius skills to help others
January 27th, 2008, 5:54 am Hobby Shops
Turner was born and raised in Virginia along with his brother and sister. After high school, he went into the Army and fought in Vietnam where he briefly was a prisoner of war. According to Falise, Turner earned a Purple Heart for carrying a wounded soldier on his shoulders for miles. Upon his return from the war, he moved to Tennessee with a friend and continued to keep up the martial arts skills he learned in the military — ranking a black belt in jujitsu. His skills eventually led him to kick boxing, which he began to compete in professionally. For about eight years, Turner toured as a professional kickboxer, fighting in such places as Las Vegas and Japan. But Falise said: “To know him personally, he’d never hurt a fly.” As his professional kick-boxing career began to wind down, however, Turner started working on cars — specifically transmissions. In the early 1980s, Turner’s parents moved to Florida and he decided to join them. He began working for AAL Transmission World in Orlando as a manager. “He just pulled up one day and applied for a job and was hired on the spot,” said Falise, who met Turner while working in the transmission industry in Orlando. Turner worked for AAL Transmission World for the next 10 years and began to gain the respect of those in the transmission and auto industries — earning a reputation across the country. “I don’t know of anybody in the transmission business that knew more or who was smarter than he was,” Falise said. “He was the person that anybody all over the U.S. would call . . . to get information. He was that technically savvy . . . Anybody in the automotive industry from here to California would tell you that Matt Turner was just unbelievable.” In 1992, Turner started working for Falise’s transmission-service company, AA National in Orlando, where he managed six stores. In 2000, he went back to work at AAL Transmission where he stayed for four years, managing four stores. In 2004, he began working for Transco Transmission in Orlando, where he ran two locations. “He was the kind of person that if you gave him a task, he would exhaust every ounce of everything solving that problem,” Falise said. “He just loved the challenge.” Turner met his future wife, Polly, through a co-worker of hers and, according to Falise, “they hit it off the first second they met.” The two married in 2002 after dating a few years. “There’s no two better suited soul mates on the face of the earth than those two,” Falise said. “Because of the way they treated each other, the way they respected each other. They weren’t just husband and wife, they were friends — best friends.” Not only did Turner become a husband when he married Polly, he also became a father to her young daughter, Samantha. “I don’t think that I’ve ever seen a man take over the reins as a fatherly figure as he did with that girl. Samantha was his life. . . He just couldn’t wait to start telling you about his ‘Smoogy’ his nickname for Samantha.” Besides automobiles, Turner loved working on computers and even built and fixed them for friends. Cooking was one of his favorite hobbies, which meant he became the main meal-maker in the household. And he kept up with his martial arts, though his kick-boxing days were over. His family remained his most important priority. Turner is survived by wife Polly Turner and daughter Samantha of Winter Springs; mother Natalia Turner of Deltona; sister Andrea Turner of Deltona; and a brother in Chicago. A memorial service will be 2 p.m. Monday at Banfield Funeral Home in Winter Springs. Laura Brost can be reached at lbrost@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-6063.
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