Boy Who Fulfilled Wish of Visiting CIA Dies of Cancer at 10

Matthew Brandon Kaiser, the 10-year-old Calabasas boy who fulfilled his life’s wish by visiting the Central Intelligence Agency in the spring, has died from complications of bone marrow cancer.

Remembered for his open smile, quick wit and steady friendship, Matthew became CIA agent 006 1/2 when he and his mother, Patti, toured Washington, courtesy of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which grants wishes to children with life-threatening illnesses.

“I knew Matt quite well, and he was a wonderful little boy,” said Laura Bell, principal of Chatsworth Hills Academy, where he was a fifth-grader. “He had a great sense of humor and a big heart. What I’ll remember about Matt the most is that, despite everything, he remained brave and optimistic. He cherished his friends here. We’re really going to miss him.”

Matthew was found to have a brain tumor 18 months ago and the cancer spread to his bones in recent months, causing him to check into Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles a few days before Thanksgiving. Weakened by a bone marrow transplant last week and a massive dose of chemotherapy, the boy died early Monday at the hospital. “His body just couldn’t handle it any more,” said aunt Sharon Dickson.

Matthew is also survived by his father, Rick, and a 13-year-old sister, Kelly.

“He was just an adorable kid with these big dimples,” his aunt said. “He was shy sometimes, then real outgoing at other times.”

Not one to let his illness rule his life, Matthew spent the days before his transplant doing typical kid stuff--wrestling with school chums on the floor of his hospital room, Bell said.

At the private school Monday, a therapist consoled the boy’s fifth-grade classmates, who made sympathy cards for the Kaiser family. Students reminisced about the loyal friend who loved airplanes and enjoyed math and gym class.

“The thing about Matt was that he wanted people to like him not because he was sick, but because he was who he was,” Bell said.

Eschewing a Make-A-Wish trip to Disneyland, which he considered a little too touristy, Matthew chose to trek to the nation’s capital last spring, taking first-class tours of the National Zoo, the monuments and the National Air and Space Museum. But those destinations paled in comparison to a visit to the Langley, Va., headquarters of the CIA.

During his six-hour tour, Matthew delighted in the latest in spy gadgetry. He used night-vision goggles, secret photographic equipment and a device that “morphs” digital photographs to conceal agents’ identities.

In honor of the blue-eyed boy, classmates are planning to plant a tree and dedicate a bench in a swath of open space just outside Matthew’s classroom.

The family has asked that donations be sent to the Matthew Brandon Kaiser Memorial Fund, Chatsworth Hills Academy, 21523 Rinaldi St., Chatsworth, CA 91311.

“He’s not going to be forgotten,” Bell said Tuesday. “There is definitely a legacy that Matt has left us with.”

Memorial services will be held at 1 p.m. on Friday at Mt. Sinai Chapel, 5950 Forest Lawn Drive, Los Angeles.