Mark Francis Backs

He was born December 3, 1927 in Minster, Ohio. He attended Minster High School and the University of Dayton. Mark met his future wife Adele in the spring of 1949 at the Stritch School of Medicine at Loyola University, Chicago. He was in his first year of medical school, and Adele was working as a lab chemist in the physiology lab. They enjoyed going for pizza on Friday nights and dancing at clubs that had live big bands. They married on June 16, 1952.

Mark was an anesthesiologist. He completed medical school in 1952 and then interned for a year at Valley Forge Army Hospital. He served in the Army medical core in Trieste, Italy for a year and a half. In 1954 he worked at the Fort Benjamin Harrison infirmary, in Indianapolis, with Korean War soldiers and dependents. He was in family practice in Mishawaka, Indiana, from 1955 to 1957. In 1958 and 1959 he did a residency at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia. In 1960 he and Adele moved to Madison, Wisconsin, where he became a partner at Madison Anesthesiologist, SC. His group practiced at St. Mary’s Hospital and Madison General Hospital from 1960 to 1985 and at the Dean Clinic from 1985 to 1989.

Mark and Adele lived in Madison for three decades, from 1960 to 1989. They raised six children: Michelle, Jennifer, Greg, Carol, Tammy, and Kim. He loved sharing stories with family and playing cards and games. Mark had a warm, friendly nature, making it impossible not to love being around him. He was very social. He and Adele were part of dinner groups for about 30 years; they would meet monthly, rotating at different couples’ homes and each contributing to the meal. Mark enjoyed chatting on the phone and keeping up with the lives of his friends, kids, and grandchildren. Holidays were special – he liked to help with the cooking and baking and would always be involved in choosing the menu. He was a cheerful, interesting person who could tell great stories.

Mark had a wide array of interests beyond family and work. He loved history and reading about historical figures. He played tennis regularly – in a mixed doubles group with Adele and in a men’s group (he and his brother Al started playing as teenagers). He was an accomplished bridge player, and seemed to enjoy teaching others the intricacies of the game almost as much as playing it. Mark loved to fish and went on annual fishing and canoe trips in the spring to the Boundary Waters in Minnesota. He also loved baking bread. And he liked gardening; in Madison he and Adele had a rose garden and a vegetable garden. In his later years he spent many hours listening to books on tape.

Mark loved to travel. Over the years he and Adele visited a variety of places in the United States. They spent several summers in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Abroad, they traveled to Mexico and to a number of countries in Europe, including Italy, France, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia, Portugal, Spain, and Turkey. Mark had an amazing memory; years after a trip he could give you precise directions to places in the US and Europe. Before smartphones, he would sit on the floor and map out trips in Europe. He had a special affection for Italy, as Adele was Italian, and they traveled there often.

In 1989, Mark and Adele retired to Tucson, Arizona. They made good friends in Tucson, continued to play tennis, started hiking groups (“Trail Nuts”), participated in dinner and bridge groups, and attended the Tucson Symphony.

A friendly and outgoing man, Mark often stopped to chat with neighbors and took a true interest in the lives of others. After Adele passed away in 2015, he hosted an informal coffee and breakfast group that came to be known as “Nemo’s Nook.” Neighbors and friends gathered in the morning on Mark’s porch, drinking coffee, enjoying pastries and baked goods (often homemade), and chatting about topics small and large. This continued until Mark moved to San Diego in 2021. Some of the friends who attended Nemo’s Nook continue to get together.

Mark was an excellent conversationalist. He enjoyed talking about all manner of things, and he loved exploring minute details of how things work and recounting stories from the past. He also was a superb listener. One of his great nephews noted “how eager he was to understand other peoples’ subjective experience. He often asked questions. Questions for which the person he was asking was essentially the only person who might know the answer. Questions such as ‘You clearly care a lot about […]; how does one get started with that?’ and ‘Why are you interested in that?’ and ‘Who influenced you in that way?’ and ‘What do you think about this?’ and ‘How did you learn about that?.’ He gave space for a conversation to remain on a single topic for a while. And he’d remember what was said. I felt ‘seen’ around Uncle Mark.”

As Mark began to experience health challenges, he set a goal to make it back to Italy for his 95th birthday. To get in shape for the trip, he walked daily in the neighborhood with Nemo, worked with a trainer twice a week, and spent countless hours on a Peloton stationary bike doing scenic rides of Italy (chosen by his son Greg). Mark achieved his goal: in the fall of 2022 he spent two weeks in Tuscany together with all of his children and their spouses.

Mark lived a long and full life. His mind remained sharp, he continued to be closely connected with family and friends, and physically he was vibrant well into his 90s. A few days before he died, one of his physicians asked if he could share some words of wisdom. Mark said “a lot of luck, a lot of hard work, keep a positive attitude, learn something new every day, keep up your social life, a good diet, exercise.”

Mark is survived by his children Michelle Backs, Greg Backs (Maureen Richards), Carol Backs (Josh Kapp), Tammy Backs, Kim Kenworthy (Lane), Mike Malley (husband of deceased daughter Jennifer), 13 grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren, three great-great-grandchildren, and his dog Nemo. He was preceded in death by his wife Adele, parents Leo and Olga Backs, brother Alton Backs, daughter Jennifer Malley, and grandchildren Aaron Armstrong and Noah Kenworthy.

Services will be private. In lieu of flowers, gifts can be made in memory of Mark Backs to the University of Dayton’s Rawers Scholarship, which gives scholarships to students from Minster Ohio.