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angledgeI just received a shocking, terrible email. Mark McCandless, a truly amazing man & my FINS teammate, died yesterday morning from an aggressive form of meningitis. He was only in the hospital for a few hours. He was, I believe, 46 years old. Hivelings, you may remember me showing you a photo of Mark (see below) & asking you how old you thought he was - you generally guessed he was in his early 30s. I think he was 44 at the time. His funeral is tomorrow at Old St. Joseph's Church in Philadelphia.
At this moment, I can't comprehend the loss. Mark was one of the most talented & generous people I've ever met. He was level-headed & organized, yet passionate about his pursuits. He was the FINS meet director this year, & our normally chaotic event ran incredibly smoothly. He had a way of injecting calmness & direction into our ... forcefully opinionated ... team meetings, calming tempers when they flared, gently helping to steer meetings back on track when we veered off on tangents. He usually came to practice directly from work, so afterwards he'd have wet spiky hair & be wearing a suit & tie - with the shirt slightly unbuttoned & the tie only loosely done. Classic Mark - professional, a bit conservative, but relaxed at the same time.
I think my favorite memory of Mark is from the 2001 IGLA Championships in Toronto, when the FINS were getting ready for the Pink Flamingo synchronized swimming extravaganza. One of our team's butchier lesbians (M, you know who you are) on the team was dressed as a maple leaf, but was resisting the final part of the costume. So there was Mark, chasing her around with a tube of lipstick, saying "YOU JUST NEED SOME COLOR ON YOUR FACE!! IT WILL HIGHLIGHT YOUR SMILE!!"
God bless & keep you, Mark. You are irreplaceable.
FINS men's relay (Jim, Jim, Mark, & Scott) at Gay Games VI in Sydney, Australia, 2002.
Caption: Charlie, Joan, Cindy, and Mark at IGLA 2001 in Toronto.
At this moment, I can't comprehend the loss. Mark was one of the most talented & generous people I've ever met. He was level-headed & organized, yet passionate about his pursuits. He was the FINS meet director this year, & our normally chaotic event ran incredibly smoothly. He had a way of injecting calmness & direction into our ... forcefully opinionated ... team meetings, calming tempers when they flared, gently helping to steer meetings back on track when we veered off on tangents. He usually came to practice directly from work, so afterwards he'd have wet spiky hair & be wearing a suit & tie - with the shirt slightly unbuttoned & the tie only loosely done. Classic Mark - professional, a bit conservative, but relaxed at the same time.
I think my favorite memory of Mark is from the 2001 IGLA Championships in Toronto, when the FINS were getting ready for the Pink Flamingo synchronized swimming extravaganza. One of our team's butchier lesbians (M, you know who you are) on the team was dressed as a maple leaf, but was resisting the final part of the costume. So there was Mark, chasing her around with a tube of lipstick, saying "YOU JUST NEED SOME COLOR ON YOUR FACE!! IT WILL HIGHLIGHT YOUR SMILE!!"
God bless & keep you, Mark. You are irreplaceable.
FINS men's relay (Jim, Jim, Mark, & Scott) at Gay Games VI in Sydney, Australia, 2002.
Caption: Charlie, Joan, Cindy, and Mark at IGLA 2001 in Toronto.
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Date: 2003-10-31 05:35 pm (UTC)