Birth date: Nov 28, 1957 Death date: Dec 9, 2020
UPDATED 3/1/2021 - A Celebration of Life for Mark will be held on Sunday, March 7th at 1:30pm EST. While the family will be gathering in person in limited numbers due to COVID-19 precautions, we welcome you to share in his service Read Obituary
You couldn’t ask for a better neighbor, friend, father figure. Mark shared his great values and his sense of humor freely, and loved his girls more than anything. Kristi, Ashley and Lindsay, you’re in my heart, and the hearts of Nani and Jenny.
When you know someone for most of your life, it is truly a special blessing. Mark and I crew up and played many years on the same District Heights Boys Club baseball teams. Each year we’d move up to the next age group where the same boys stayed together for the most part. That made it extra special. I remember Mr. Kahler was always at our games. As we crew up, we went to different high schools and played on opposite teams, but we always had that bond from those early years. Next, we found ourselves working at the A&P store in Forestville for a few years. After he and Kristie were married, we eventually become neighbors living on the same street. Many good times were had there with the great group of neighbors for years. I am grateful to have known Mark.
Craig F.
When I think of Mark it makes me smile. Spending time with him from high school to now meant you were having a good time. Never the out spoken member of a group, he was the one that always had the underlying “good vibe” going on. He was the proud dad to his wonderful girls and a supportive and devoted husband.
Uncle Mark was quietly one of the people in our family I looked up too and tried to emulate when I had my daughter. Never needing to be asked twice he was always present at anytime I hosted a BBQ always sneaking extra plates of brisket and pulled pork. I can say over my 40 years of knowing him we had our “guy” adventures at the beach, if was sitting in the sand sipping beer or getting his Honda stuck in a sand dune coming back from a family dinner in the middle of the Nags Head cause of some very pretty distractions.
I spent a lot of time early on going to Annapolis and spent some quality time with all the women folks going about of sitting quietly in his basement watching Terps basketball and sipping on his secret stash of Crown Royal. At family events Uncle Mark I could always rely on to score the “steamed shrimp”. As the days got short near end of his life I would send my daughter to visit Aunt Lindsay and Aunt Kris “the great” but I would arm my 4 year old who has a love of seafood, rehearsing what to say when she saw Uncle Mark that “can we get shrimp?” Knowing full well he would be happy to sit with her at his house digging into Old Bay goodness reliving his memories of time spent with Ashley and Linds.
His impact on my life as a father was to always be there but give your girls space to grow and be their own person. He shared his love of sports with Ashley and it’s something as the other “jock” of the family I now share with my daughter. It helped craft our traditions of snack plates and sitting with dad watching the sport of the season.
I took the lessons of hard work and sacrifice he put in working at Giant Food to ensure his oldest daughter Lindsay had the healthcare she needed over the years. He set the example of being the quiet rock that his girls could always know was there for them. I always have respected and admired him for that and tried to emulate it in my life as a father as well.
There is a story my parents tell me about when I was really young of calling one of my grandmothers friends the “Where is the beef” lady. For record totally Uncle Marks fault he taught me the saying I still remember that sitting around my Grandmothers old house in District Heights. (I know those that know the story will get a good laugh but I swear it was him!!)
Uncle Mark and my dad were always all about getting seafood for our beach vacations. We frequented the Outer Banks growing up and there are a lot of good memories. We all used to trek down to the Inlet and watch the fishing boats offload. For years he always has told me he would love to take a deep sea fishing trip. My last memory of Uncle Mark was him sitting in our house enjoying BBQ and on hearing he had just recently retired telling him this Feb guys I knew were planning a fishing trip out of the Outer Banks. We still had spots on the boat and I made it a personal point to not ask but tell him he had a seat to go on the trip if he wanted too. While it’s upsetting he is gone I can say with a smile and joy in my heart that my last memory of time with him was trying to convince him to come along on that fishing trip he always wanted to go on. And I will embrace that memory as every memory of him was one with joy and a smile.
To Aunt Kris “the great”, Lindsay and Ashley I know this is hard. But as we discussed sitting around the s’mores pit with T-bird and Lissa one step each day. We will embrace the good times and the memories and all smile with happy memories in our heart. It would be as he wanted us to remember him.
Rest Easy “Cal”
