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J. Larry Mattingly will bring his 50-year career as a pyrotechnician full circle when he lights up the skies above Howard Amon Park with a special fireworks show tonight observing Richland's 50th anniversary.
A stroke of bad luck for someone else on a December day in 1958 was a turning point for Mattingly, then a student at Columbia High School in Richland.
At age 16, Mattingly was learning the fireworks trade from a local pyrotechnician who planned a fireworks show for Richland's reincorporation. The city had just become independent again after 15 years as a federal government town and had planned an extravaganza to celebrate.
But the day of the show, Mattingly couldn't find his boss. He went banging on his boss's door, but instead he got newly elected Richland Mayor Pat Merrill, who lived next door.
Mattingly said Merrill stuck her head outside and told the teen his boss was sick, and Mattingly saw an opportunity to launch his dream career. He convinced Merrill that he could run the fireworks show in his boss's place, and she got the police department to hand the fireworks over to him.
He got together a few friends and a couple of soldiers from Camp Hanford and put on a technicolor display using shells, fountains, Roman candles and mines.
"A mine is a blast of fire that goes 'Boom!' straight up like this," Mattingly said, waving his arms in the air. "It fills the sky with fire."
Mattingly co-owns Entertainment Fireworks Inc., an Olympia-based pyrotechnics company that puts on about 300 fireworks shows around the Northwest each year.
He had wanted to be a "fireworks man" from the time he saw his first fireworks show just after the end of World War II. He started by going to every fireworks show he could, watching the pyrotechnicians and asking questions until he could convince someone to teach him how to put on his own shows.
"I ended up being the town pyrotechnician until I moved over to the coast in 1970," Mattingly said. "I have been very fortunate to be able to do it for 50 years."
The one-time Bomber couldn't wait to get back to his hometown to plan the show for Richland's 50th. Mattingly said he planned every detail -- hand-picking the musical selections and designing and choreographing the display.
"In this show we've got glitz, glitter and noise," he said. "It's a celebration. ... If everything works right, the fireworks should appear to literally dance in the sky to the music."
And he lined up a few fellow Bomber alumni to help with the estimated 10 hours of set-up on the riverbank in Howard Amon Park.
John Adkins, who graduated from Columbia High School in 1962, said he was glad to heed his friend's call for help.
Adkins didn't know Mattingly in 1958, but he remembers the spectacular fireworks show celebrating Richland's reincorporation.
"It sure broke a lot of windows," he said.
The free celebration starts at 6 tonight in Howard Amon Park with free hot chocolate, caroling and a visit from Santa. The fireworks start at 6:30. Spectators can hear the music by bringing a portable radio tuned to FM 105.3.
