In Memoriam:Mark Mathis

"Behind every successful cat is an obedient owner."

Mark was born in Chicago and moved to New Jersey when he was 10. He was always a high academic achiever getting a perfect 1600 on the SAT and being a national merit scholar.

In his mid 20's, he moved to the Washington area and met his wife at a volleyball game. They were married in 1983 and begat Allison in 1985 and Melinda in 1987.

He worked from home with his company Plus Pendator (which in Latin means big spender) so that when Allison and Melinda were in elementary school he could take them to school in the morning and pick them up in the afternoon.

In 1993 Mark, divorced, started a different business, DC Easylink which was an ISP. After DC Easylink, he started Micro Access Technologies for which Allison designed their logo.

Mark Mathis 1952 - 2002

Mark Mathis 1952 - 2002

After his house burned down, Mark went to Gospel Rescue Mission and became the director of the computer department. He also taught classes for ByteBack.

He joined TeraTech in December, 1999 and started running the MDCFUG meetings and organizing the CFUN-2k conference. He would often be seen walking around the conference site smoking his pipe or chatting with people.

He was always ready to help out and answer questions. He did have a playful streak in him - often setting exam questions for students that required an extra twist to figure out. He loved cats and had four of them.

Mark died of a heart attack on Good Friday 3/29/02 at the hospital. He was 50 years old.

Mark et al at CFUN-2K

Do you see a slight resemblance?

Mark being Mark

Mark at one of his favorite pastimes

Mark’s mischievous aura manifested

Mark with his oldest cat.