The following obituary was written and submitted by Chuck Munson, a long-time friend of Mark:

Mark led an interesting life. Mark Patterson passed away from a severe infection on October 23, 2025, at the age of 80 after having lived a very full life. A three-sport letterman at Edmonds, Mark was preceded in death by his parents, older brother Harlan, Edmonds ’61; younger brother Mel, Meadowdale ’66; and Mark’s wife, Frida, who passed away in 2015. His sister Adella Patterson Walter, Edmonds ’64, is alive and well and lives with her husband Bill in South Carolina.

Adella tells an interesting story about Mark at home while in high school. He creatively enhanced his social life by convincing his parents he should not be bothered in his bedroom while doing homework. Any distraction interfered with his concentration. To ensure privacy, he bought and installed a deadbolt on his bedroom door. His parents apparently admired his commitment to academic excellence and left him alone. On evenings when opportune, Mark would then climb out his bedroom window to the roof, drop down, and head out with Class of ’63 friends of similar academic persuasion.

After high school, Mark attended Everett Junior [Community] College. He decided college was not for him and left after a year. He joined the Seabees and served two tours in Việt Nam. The second tour, Adella said, was honorably motivated. Mark had a presentiment his younger brother Mel would die if Mel went to Việt Nam. Mark worked it so that he, Mark, went instead. Mel ultimately served in Germany. After Việt Nam, Mark headed to the South and got to know his father’s Mississippi family, one of whom was Cousin Pastor Leonard Patterson who led Mark to the Lord. Mark missed the sea, wanted to see more of the world, and entered the merchant marines where he graduated with honors from the Maritime Institute of Technology and Graduate Studies in Baltimore.

Adella tells an interesting story about Mark’s globetrotting during his early maritime career; something he did that, most likely, no one else from Edmonds High has ever done or will ever do. Mark met an attractive Russian, Frida, and courted her for two years. When they applied for a marriage license in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), the Soviet chinusha rudely told them, “Nyet, nyet, nyet! Vashi dokumenty nepolnyye. Podnimites' naverkh” – “No, no, no! Your documents are incomplete. Go upstairs.” They went upstairs and were told to return the next day with paperwork completed. They did so and were sent upstairs again. The result was the same. When they returned the third time, Mark told Frida to take care of it. He wasn’t going to stand in line again. He went to a nearby bar, engaged with another patron who spoke English, and complained about Russian bureaucrats while the other patron listened. The other patron turned out to be a KGB agent who enjoyed talking to Americans. In this case, however, he commiserated with Mark and encouraged him to return one more time. Frida and Mark did so, and he and Frida were again sent upstairs where, this time, their paperwork was accepted, but Mark and Frida were briefly interrogated by the KGB. Mark did not understand a word of it. When the interrogation was finished, Frida said joyfully, “We’re married!” Bottom line: Mark Patterson is probably the only Edmonds High graduate married by the KGB. It was, incidentally, the fourth of July, 1981. That’s how Mark rolled. True story.

After Mark retired from the merchant marines, he stepped sideways, working on the Alaska-Bellingham ferry through the Inside Passage. He developed an appreciation of nature while visiting Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg, Juneau, Skagway, Prince Rupert, and sometimes Valdez, Kodiak and Dutch Harbor. It was a good job, but Mark was concerned with lack of conscientiousness aboard and eventually submitted his resignation. By then, Mark had become focused on the big Alaska wilderness like the man in Robert Service’s epic poem The Spell of the Yukon, concluding it was where he belonged.

Some say God was tired when He made it;

Some say it's a fine land to shun;

Maybe; but there's some as would trade it

For no land on earth -- and I'm one.

Mark and Frida settled next to a Juneau cove when they bought a cabin on the beach south of the Mendenhall Glacier. Over the rest of his life, Mark remodeled and expanded the home. From their deck they could watch whales, moose, eagles, the Northern Lights, and enjoy barbecued king salmon filet center cuts minutes out of the water. Mark became an expert on local history, geology, fauna and flora. He went to work as a tour bus driver and a guide for Mendenhall Glacier tours, enjoying opportunities to tell Cheechakos all he found fascinating about his new, big country. Mark was in his element.

Frida passed away in 2015 and eventually Mark had to stay home where he watched and read. Adella said he thoroughly enjoyed reading and, until his passing, was on the phone often, staying in touch with Adella, Mississippi relatives, and his many friends including several Edmonds High classmates. Aristotle said, “An unexamined life is not worth living.” Mark examined his life often and subsequently had extraordinary experiences while cultivating many lasting friendships, in summary living a very full life, a life worth examining.