I first met Mark in Mrs. Sheets kingergarten class and and we were friends from the start. We shared a certain sense of humor about all the awkward moments we had in grade school and high school. Starting with Coach Caukett's dance classes, optional but really mandatory-through Boy Scout's. We were a bit irrevrant. My parents remember Mark well (Dad's 98 and mom is 91) as a member of the family. Always in and out at all times of the day and night. They nicely ignored the beer cans in the bushes! He called them Belle and Harry and they took that in the warm spirit it was meant. He would visit them in Madison tooling in on his motor cycle and managed to visit me in DC on the same cycle. He was a great photographer in high school and did professional work many, many weddings. He was wicked smart. Took advanced math--the early morning course and went on to teach and develop a state of the art computer program for the foundry industry. We double dated a lot. Mark was one of the first kids to get his driver's license. So we were all over the place: AFS students, Nicolet , Harvest Dance. His parents had a Rambler with front seats that folded down--for camping trips the ads said. Mark had to try them out. So we went "camping" on the streets of WFB. We would also borrow his neighbors Renault Dauphne with a sky roof. Get a bucket of snow and tool around the Bay throwing snow balls through the sky roof. He was a good and true friend. A day does not go by that I don't think of him. I miss him.
In 1971 Mark inherited some money from his grandmother. He used the funds to buy a new 23 foot sailboat and named it after her. When he invited me to go sailing, I accepted even though I had no prior experience. Mark had plenty of recent experience crewing on 12 meter racers off the coast of Connecticut. On a perfect summer day, we shoved off the mooring at McKinley Marina and had several hours of great sailing and laughs as he instructed his crew of one. At about 6 miles due east of the harbor, the steel rudder detached from the tiller and sank to the bottom. Yes, we were now the proverbial ship without a rudder. The boat heeled violently almost to the point of capsize and the sails were out of control. I can still hear Mark yelling "duck" every time the boom would sweep the deck like a sabre going for our heads. Of course, the life jackets were neatly stowed below deck during the whole ordeal. Expertly, he got things under control, radioed the Coast Guard, and we caught some rays while dangling our feet over the transom as they towed us back to port.
Although a near-death experience, I never forgot the beauty of the first part of that sail, gliding through the water hearing only the waves against the hull, and the feeling of leaving your problems on shore. Twenty years later, my wife and I bought an 11 meter sloop and enjoyed years of sailing Lake Michigan and Green Bay/ Door Peninsula. Thanks Mark. Sail on my friend, you have fair winds and flat seas now.... but please check those rudder bolts.
Mary O'Donnell (Fulkerson)
Mark...You are special, tall in your spirit...
As always...
I remember you to be quiet, and supportive of others...
You have shown a great sense of humor, though you have shared it rarely,
...and you have protected innocence in your respect for all people...
I rmemeber you as supportive of me, even when I was feeling very alone.
You are special, tall in your spirit...
And I remember you telling me what that hole in the desk was for...the ink well...
We were sitting near each other then, K and O.
You always were tall in your spirit,
And you let a shorter person, me, O, sit in front of you, so I could see the blackboard.
Thanks, Mark...You still are a great friend.
H. Stephen Halloway
I first met Mark in Mrs. Sheets kingergarten class and and we were friends from the start. We shared a certain sense of humor about all the awkward moments we had in grade school and high school. Starting with Coach Caukett's dance classes, optional but really mandatory-through Boy Scout's. We were a bit irrevrant. My parents remember Mark well (Dad's 98 and mom is 91) as a member of the family. Always in and out at all times of the day and night. They nicely ignored the beer cans in the bushes! He called them Belle and Harry and they took that in the warm spirit it was meant. He would visit them in Madison tooling in on his motor cycle and managed to visit me in DC on the same cycle. He was a great photographer in high school and did professional work many, many weddings. He was wicked smart. Took advanced math--the early morning course and went on to teach and develop a state of the art computer program for the foundry industry. We double dated a lot. Mark was one of the first kids to get his driver's license. So we were all over the place: AFS students, Nicolet , Harvest Dance. His parents had a Rambler with front seats that folded down--for camping trips the ads said. Mark had to try them out. So we went "camping" on the streets of WFB. We would also borrow his neighbors Renault Dauphne with a sky roof. Get a bucket of snow and tool around the Bay throwing snow balls through the sky roof. He was a good and true friend. A day does not go by that I don't think of him. I miss him.
John Foley
In 1971 Mark inherited some money from his grandmother. He used the funds to buy a new 23 foot sailboat and named it after her. When he invited me to go sailing, I accepted even though I had no prior experience. Mark had plenty of recent experience crewing on 12 meter racers off the coast of Connecticut. On a perfect summer day, we shoved off the mooring at McKinley Marina and had several hours of great sailing and laughs as he instructed his crew of one. At about 6 miles due east of the harbor, the steel rudder detached from the tiller and sank to the bottom. Yes, we were now the proverbial ship without a rudder. The boat heeled violently almost to the point of capsize and the sails were out of control. I can still hear Mark yelling "duck" every time the boom would sweep the deck like a sabre going for our heads. Of course, the life jackets were neatly stowed below deck during the whole ordeal. Expertly, he got things under control, radioed the Coast Guard, and we caught some rays while dangling our feet over the transom as they towed us back to port.
Although a near-death experience, I never forgot the beauty of the first part of that sail, gliding through the water hearing only the waves against the hull, and the feeling of leaving your problems on shore. Twenty years later, my wife and I bought an 11 meter sloop and enjoyed years of sailing Lake Michigan and Green Bay/ Door Peninsula. Thanks Mark. Sail on my friend, you have fair winds and flat seas now.... but please check those rudder bolts.