Mark A. Wallace

Mark Alan Wallace was born on November 22, 1962, in Brooklyn, New York. He was the second child of Annette and Howard, and was the baby brother to Howie. Seven years later, Mark and Howie welcomed their baby sister Cindy.

Shortly after, Howard moved his wife and kids out of the city and to the suburbs - a small town in New Jersey, called Old Bridge. Life in Old Bridge was good for the Wallaces. His dad continued to work for Eastern Airlines, and Annette managed things at home. It was a great place to grow up, with lots of neighborhood kids to play with. There was sledding on Devil's Hill, hide-and-seek, and baseball. Mark grew to be taller than the other kids and earned the nicknames of Mongo and Homer with his baseball buddies.

After Willis and Miller Elementary Schools and Salk Middle School, Mark decided to go to Vo-Tech School to learn the printing trade, which became his lifelong career. Mark's participation in fund-raising Spaghetti Dinners at Vo-Tech was the start of his passion for making large quantities of food and feeding family and friends. He never did get the portion sizes right, though, there was always plenty of leftovers. Mark also developed a passion for Christmas decorations. Each year, he directed the family in stringing up lights that covered most of the roof, and placing the Nativity, Santa Claus and Snowman figures around the yard. Mark took great pride in not missing any days at school and consistently earned Perfect Attendance awards. This all was nearly ruined when Howie had a party and tried to get Mark drunk. The next day, he was not feeling well at all, but still went to school so he wouldn't mess up his record, then called Howie to get picked up early. Mark and Howie formed a band called Albatross, with Mark on drums and Howie on guitar. Mark also became the first one to play drums in the folk group in church.

His dad got a transfer to Miami and moved down to Miramar in October, 1979. Howie needed to finish up his semester in college, and Mark wanted to finish high school before moving. They lived with their close family friends, the Murawskis, who had six kids of their own. After high school, Mark came to Miramar with the family. Shortly after, he got a job as a stripper (no, not that kind of stripper - this was in printing) at A.D. Weiss. This became his lifelong job, where he made lots of good friends. Over the 31 years that he worked there, he watched it go from A.D. Weiss to St. Ives to Angstrom Graphics, and held several different positions.

As a young man in South Florida, Mark really embraced the party scene, usually starting out at Oceans Eleven for the cheap drinks and chicken wings and then moving on to places like City Limits, Dina's Treehouse, the Agoura Ballroom, Tugboat Annie's and many more. Mark bought a time-share in the keys called the Topsider, and the second week of August became the best week of the year as family and friends went there and enjoyed boating, scuba diving, fishing and strawberry daiquiris.

In 1989, Mark met Tracy, the love of his life. They were married on February 1, 1992. They enjoyed their young married life taking many ski vacations, purchasing their home in Sunrise, and planning a family. Jonathan was born in 1997 and Jason in 2000. The boys grew up fast and were soon taller than most of the family members. Mark and Tracy had their hands full when the boys got involved in sports. In 2007, Mark decided to get in shape and started working out and running. He completed several races and on November 2, 2008, Mark completed the New York City Marathon. He started out in Brooklyn, with his family and friends cheering him on and ran the 26.2 miles through the five boroughs, ending up in Central Park.

Mark was a great son, brother, nephew, brother-in-law, uncle, husband, father, godfather and friend. He was sensitive and caring and always put others ahead of himself. He was a loving and protective father and participated in school events and field trips. Mark was always the life of the party and loved to entertain. He was a great support to his nieces, nephews and godchildren, always giving them his time and good advice.

Mark is survived by his wife, Tracy, his sons Jonathan and Jason; his brother Howie and his wife Janet, along with their daughters, Melanie and Danielle; his sister Cindy and her husband Steven, along with their children Shane, Kyle and Macie; and his mother- and father-in-law Suzy and Al Barr.

He will truly be missed by all, and remembered forever.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the American Cancer Society in Mark's name.