Mark was a cool, handsome guy I looked up to, if only because I thought there's no way I could ever be as cool as he was. Not only attitude and looks, but an athelete and a scholar. He also played the violin in the orchestra. Almost too good to be true, but to me at least, he always acted like a regular guy, despite all the apparent advantages.
Mark was a friend, but he was more than that. There were not many people I would have traded places with back at that time, but I wished I could be him. Yes, he was tall and somewhat handsome, a good athlete, but most of all he was a gentleman, inside and out. We used to play bridge - John Sullivan, Don Guiney, Mark, and I would get together once a month. Starting in junior high, we would dress up in coats and ties, have our mothers drive us to one house or another, and play bridge. Not well, mind you, but Mark was both the best player and the most gentle person at the table. I never heard him say an unkind word about anybody, and I remember him feeling tormented once when he won a tennis match, because he had injured his opponent with an unfortunately placed overhead smash.
Mark became an Oncologist, I believe, and I think he died in about 1990, of cancer. After his family moved to Tustin I more or less lost touch with him, but the news of his death was a tough one for me. He was one of the good ones. No, one of the best ones.
Jim Nunn
Mark was a cool, handsome guy I looked up to, if only because I thought there's no way I could ever be as cool as he was. Not only attitude and looks, but an athelete and a scholar. He also played the violin in the orchestra. Almost too good to be true, but to me at least, he always acted like a regular guy, despite all the apparent advantages.
Vard Nelson
Mark was a friend, but he was more than that. There were not many people I would have traded places with back at that time, but I wished I could be him. Yes, he was tall and somewhat handsome, a good athlete, but most of all he was a gentleman, inside and out. We used to play bridge - John Sullivan, Don Guiney, Mark, and I would get together once a month. Starting in junior high, we would dress up in coats and ties, have our mothers drive us to one house or another, and play bridge. Not well, mind you, but Mark was both the best player and the most gentle person at the table. I never heard him say an unkind word about anybody, and I remember him feeling tormented once when he won a tennis match, because he had injured his opponent with an unfortunately placed overhead smash.
Mark became an Oncologist, I believe, and I think he died in about 1990, of cancer. After his family moved to Tustin I more or less lost touch with him, but the news of his death was a tough one for me. He was one of the good ones. No, one of the best ones.