Mark Richard Kissinger, 25 Feb 2022, Kingman, Arizona

Mark Richard Kissinger was born in Akron, Ohio, on July 19, 1949, to Richard and Jennie (Syroid) Kissinger. Born into a military family, he moved often during his younger life. From Ohio, the family moved to Fairbanks, Alaska, then Florida, Ohio, Okinawa, Arizona, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Germany, Illinois, and again, Alaska. He went to college in Anchorage, Alaska, then moved south, living in Arizona, Ohio, and Colorado.

A man of many interests and skills, Mark worked variously as a cameraman for a television station, an apprentice electrician, and for ten years he ran the drill for soils testing for a geotechnical engineering firm in Monument, Colorado. Health considerations caused him to resign that job and return to school. Mark explored both drafting and teaching, ultimately earning his teaching credentials and a Masters degree in Education in 2007 from Regis University in Denver, Colorado. Afterward, Mark took a teaching job in Paradox, CO, and in 2008, he moved to Aquilar, CO to teach. Mark substitute taught in the Colorado Springs area, as well.

Mark was a loving, gentle, and generous person. He shared many common interests with his nephews and cousins–most of all music, space, science, computers, and science fiction, and later, history and environmental issues. Mark was always ready to speak about regenerative soil practices and sustainable living, and his passion guided him finally to move with his RV dubbed “Hermit Crab” to Arizona in 2017, where he planned to live sustainably on land that he inherited from his father. While planning how to develop the land in a sustainable fashion, Mark lived first in the Greater Phoenix Area, and then moved to the Kingman area. He finally moved to his desert property near Dolan Springs, AZ in 2017, where he lived off the grid and established the HermitCrab Desert Research Center for studying land management and permaculture in the high Mojave Desert. He supplied energy to his home from solar panels and was in the process of planning a permanent structure when he died.

Mark enjoyed being with his family–joking and playing with younger cousins, assisting in family building projects, and making music. A passionate bassist, Mark co-founded the electric blues band Up to No Good with a friend in Colorado Springs, CO, which played the local scene for several years. He loved to jam with family members and friends, which he did at many family reunions. He had a quirky sense of humor, laughed generously at himself, and when his fingers no longer cooperated to play bass, he used singing to keep his energy up on hot days spent working on his sustainable desert homestead.

On February 25, 2022, Mark died in the Kingman Regional Hospital, of internal bleeding related to an aortic dissection suffered in 2017. He never married and had no children, but he is survived by two siblings and a clan of cousins who love and miss him dearly, including his brother David Kissinger of Sacramento, his sister Alexandra Florimonte of Santa Cruz, his nephews Arik Florimonte, Cory Florimonte and Jack Kissinger, his niece Lianna Kissinger-Virizlay, and his grandnephew, Shane Florimonte. 

His parents and his sister Robin Kissinger predeceased him.

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