Durham-Great Bay Rotary - Newsletter

Born in Germany to Army family. Grandfather's family was from Natick, MA. Grandfather retired to Bow, NH after 30+ years in the Army, so this was "home" to our family.
As a kid, he lived in Iowa, Tennessee, Virginia, New York, Taiwan, and DC. Went to Gonzaga, a Jesuit high school, in DC.
Entered West Point on nomination from NH Senator McIntyre. Graduated in 1976, having mostly concentrated in the German language, and was commissioned in the Army Corps of Engineers.
As junior officer, Mark served in Cold War hotspots in W. Germany and Korea. The Army sent him to gradoate school at the Univ. of Colorado to get an MS in Civil Engineering.
He wound up teaching officers at the US Army Engineer School at Fort Belvoir where he married Anne Nahrgang of the Detroit area whom he met during graduate school.
Daughter Emily was born in Virginia while he was serving as aide de camp to the commanding general of Fort Belvoir.
He transferred to Germany to be an exchange officer with the British Army for 2 1/2 years. While there, daughter Sophie was born in Hameln. One oddity of the tour - he went on the Jeopardy quiz show while there.
Back to the US and Kansas for a staff officer course followed by assignment to the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. While with the division, it deployed to the Middle East to deal with Saddam Hussein. Eventually, Mark went up into Irag to use demolitions on much of Saddam's remaining armaments. While deployed, his daughter Olivia was born.
Back to Fort Bragg after the war where he was promoted out of his job to run a small Army post in northern California. This marked his career move from combat engineer to facilities engineer. Two auspicious events: daughter Hannah is born, and he joins the Rotary Club of Dublin, CA.
After California, he was sent to Hanover, NH to command the Army laboratory specializing in cold weather effects. He and Anne buy their first house in Lebanon, NH and he spends a lot of time traveling to global cold spots: Korea, Antartica, Arctic Circle, and Macedonia. In NH, he is promoted to Colonel.
The family moves to Alaska where he is the Director of Public Works for the three large Army bases there. From there, he is posted to DC for his last Army job as staff engineer for the Military District of Washington.
Mark retired from the Army and moved to Lee to take a job at the Pease International Tradeport relating to homeland security. After awhile, he opted for a return to facility management work in Boston.
In Boston, he hired on with Suffolk U. as their Director of Facilities. After six months, he was offered a job with the state of Massachusetts running an office concerned with state facility management where he's been for the last five years.
Mark tells us he enjoys hiking, gardening, cooking, home improvement, travel and skiing.

Megabucks:

Jud had the ticket but pulled the seven of spades. Pot rolls over.

Upcoming Programs:

Aug 12 Peter Wellenberger, Great Bay National Estuarine Research

Reserve

Aug 19 Official Visit, DG Jeffrey Pelkey, RC of Kittery

Aug 26 Chip Noon, Classification Talk

Sep 2 Sean McDonnell, UNH Football

Sep 9 Richard Weyrick, Oyster River Watershed Association

Sep 16 Warren Smith, Classification Talk

Sep 23 Gerry Sedor, Covered Bridges

Your Scribe: Mark