Mark’s love of music was hugely influential on me — he introduced me to so many of my favorites, loading me up the summer before my sophomore year in high school with albums from Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Joni Mitchell, Heart, Fleetwood Mac, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Van Morrison, and more. His suggestion to sing Birds by Neil Young at my mothers burial was a perfect choice, and we held eyes as we sang through the whole thing. His love and presence at that time and the years following were such a comfort to me.

Mark sent me a video of him singing Lily of the West earlier this year, which helps me to both grieve and joyfully remember him. Perhaps it will do the same for others who loved and miss him: https://youtu.be/kfQmPK7p15M

And here is a link to a public Spotify playlist with dozens of albums that Mark's loved and listened to: https://open.spotify.com/play…

I hope you enjoy it alongside all your great memories of Mark.

Like two rivers, Marks and my path crossed many times since we meet in 1974 in our much younger years in Tucson.

He was living in a camper van behind his friends house after coming back from Alaska; then I couldn’t imagine we would still be in touch 47 years later.

Looking much younger than 25 I thought he was a teenager; nice young man I thought but didn’t run into him again until 1975 in a parking lot on Kent State University where he was studying photography.

Mark took sweet photos of our family and I cherish them very much; in 1976 he walked into Pima Canyon with my soon to be husband Andy Lehman with family/friends to witness our marriage, taking wonderful photo’s of the wedding ceremony held in the Santa Catalina Mountains at sunrise.

Decades did pass between our two rivers crossing and the last meetings where on the phone; we did go back and forth on how to gardening advise, saving and growing native plants and how to keep the cows out of his garden beds. I sent garden seeds to grow, too much advise and food packages. He told me about Hügelkultur (pronounced “hoogle-culture”) the kind of garden he was building with yucca’s and how he could grow potatoes in old tires.

Highly intelligent, with a scientific kind of mind Mark was a gentle dreamer.

I will always hear his laugh and miss him very much; farewell dear traveler .

“And some things are over

Some things go on

And part of me you carry

Part of me is gone”

Lyrics by Tom Petty-Walls