Mark was a great guy and served in the US Army in Vietnam, Special Forces I believe. He taught me to ride motorcycles, which I enjoyed for may years. Very creative, kind hearted and humble and not afriad of much of anything. Quite the energetic entreprenur. He is missed and I'm so sorry that he's gone. Cliff Grady
Mark did serve as a Medic with the 5th Special Forces Group ("Green Berets"). I ran into Mark when he was with Training Group and I was with the 7th Special Forces Group at Ft. Bragg, NC in 1968. We ran into each other again at the 5th Special Forces Group headquarters in Nha Trang Vn in late November 1969 as I was leaving country and he was arriving. A good man, gone far too soon.
Mark and I grew up in the "Gardens of the Gods" subdivision. I ran into him at our 25th reunion and I am so glad that I got a chance to talk to him. Unforunately, I found that he had passed away when I attened our 50th renunion. He will definately be missed.
Mark was, maybe, my best friend. I've been thinking about him for the last several days, wishing I knew how to contact him to let him know how much I appeciated his influence on my life. I just read the e-mail post that informed me that my friend had passed. Mark.
While we were at El Camino, Mark mostly hung out with the guys from his church, but when he wasn't with them, he spent a lot of time with Brock Hellander, Roy Schnieder and myself. We sort of thought of ourselves as a foursome. I won't go into any details, but we had a lot of fun, and nearly killed each other upon occasion in various motorcycle escapades. Many afternoons, Mark would come with me to my house after school looking for a snack. Mark would grab the lettuce my Mother had bought for our evening meal, cut the head in half. We would enjoy salad dressing on a half head of lettuce. My Mother was just never sure about him! And I took many fast and furious trips to the store to purchase a head of lettuce for our evening meal for which service I recieved no appreciation.
Mark was a Green Beret who was part of a Top Secret four man unit that infiltrated North Viet Nam and spent several years there teaching modern farming and medical techniques to villiagers as a part of a program to turn the North against Ho Chi Minh. The program was a failure. Mark wasn't. He fell in love there. When he and his crew were evacuated at the end of the war, he was forced to leave his love behind
He found that he no longer enjoyed the USA, as many of us discovered at the end of that war. He took a job teaching English to Chinese in Hong Kong. He remained at that job for many years, and was still working there when he came back to to stand for me as the Best Man at my final wedding {and second greatest mistake of my life} in 1989. That was the last time I heard from him..
Sometime between his departure from Viet Nam and his return to the US in '89, he fell in love again and married, but he seldom spent time with his wife. She traveled constantly and he did not. That was the status of his love life, last I heard.
Damn. I love ya ,Mark. I won't miss you because, just as always, I still hear your voice (usually egging me on to attempt those things which are just out of reach), so, I know you are here. Thanks, my friend.
Cliff Grady
Mark was a great guy and served in the US Army in Vietnam, Special Forces I believe. He taught me to ride motorcycles, which I enjoyed for may years. Very creative, kind hearted and humble and not afriad of much of anything. Quite the energetic entreprenur. He is missed and I'm so sorry that he's gone. Cliff Grady
Dennis Drennan (Drennan)
Mark did serve as a Medic with the 5th Special Forces Group ("Green Berets"). I ran into Mark when he was with Training Group and I was with the 7th Special Forces Group at Ft. Bragg, NC in 1968. We ran into each other again at the 5th Special Forces Group headquarters in Nha Trang Vn in late November 1969 as I was leaving country and he was arriving. A good man, gone far too soon.Carolyn Ison (Kelly-West)
Mark and I grew up in the "Gardens of the Gods" subdivision. I ran into him at our 25th reunion and I am so glad that I got a chance to talk to him. Unforunately, I found that he had passed away when I attened our 50th renunion. He will definately be missed.
Allen Grush
Mark was, maybe, my best friend. I've been thinking about him for the last several days, wishing I knew how to contact him to let him know how much I appeciated his influence on my life. I just read the e-mail post that informed me that my friend had passed. Mark.
While we were at El Camino, Mark mostly hung out with the guys from his church, but when he wasn't with them, he spent a lot of time with Brock Hellander, Roy Schnieder and myself. We sort of thought of ourselves as a foursome. I won't go into any details, but we had a lot of fun, and nearly killed each other upon occasion in various motorcycle escapades. Many afternoons, Mark would come with me to my house after school looking for a snack. Mark would grab the lettuce my Mother had bought for our evening meal, cut the head in half. We would enjoy salad dressing on a half head of lettuce. My Mother was just never sure about him! And I took many fast and furious trips to the store to purchase a head of lettuce for our evening meal for which service I recieved no appreciation.
Mark was a Green Beret who was part of a Top Secret four man unit that infiltrated North Viet Nam and spent several years there teaching modern farming and medical techniques to villiagers as a part of a program to turn the North against Ho Chi Minh. The program was a failure. Mark wasn't. He fell in love there. When he and his crew were evacuated at the end of the war, he was forced to leave his love behind
He found that he no longer enjoyed the USA, as many of us discovered at the end of that war. He took a job teaching English to Chinese in Hong Kong. He remained at that job for many years, and was still working there when he came back to to stand for me as the Best Man at my final wedding {and second greatest mistake of my life} in 1989. That was the last time I heard from him..
Sometime between his departure from Viet Nam and his return to the US in '89, he fell in love again and married, but he seldom spent time with his wife. She traveled constantly and he did not. That was the status of his love life, last I heard.
Damn. I love ya ,Mark. I won't miss you because, just as always, I still hear your voice (usually egging me on to attempt those things which are just out of reach), so, I know you are here. Thanks, my friend.