I'm sure you have all seen the beer commercial with "the most interesting man alive". Whenever it came on the tube I thought of Mark.
I meet Mark back in the days of "Shotgun News" he had a Niedner-Shelhamer 7mm 1903 for sale. This was the days of letter writing and Polaroid pictures. I tried ONCE to call Mark on the phone and we were both hard of hearing, well I was and Mark had a lot less hearing.
We hit it right off, we were both interested in American custom rifles from before the war. He liked the Krags and I the 1903's whenever he saw a nice 1903 he would drop me a note and in later years an email, I did likewise when ever I saw a nice Krag for sale.
Once I started going to the winter Vegas show we would make the rounds together and I believe that Mark knew every dealer and most of the collectors in the show. If I lost track of him all I had to do was stop and listed and I could hear his shouting.
I don't know for a fact that Mark had a photography memory but something darn close, I'd ask him a question and he would tell me to look, in say, the 1924 December American Rifleman, up near the front, and it was right there. This was while he was at his place in Mexico without any gun reference material.
I can't think of a single person who was as knowledgeable about anything firearms related than Mark.
Mark has been gone from us for about a year now and his passing was not unexpected but I'll miss him for a long time. One of our kitchen cabinet doors is glass and ever so often I see a half bottle of Scotch (I am not a Scotch drinker) that Mark left here one time. When I feel a little better, I might have a go at it.
