Marvin North

Marv passed away peacefully on January 31 in Plano, TX. He is survived by his Son David, his Daughter-in-law Gayla, and his grandson, Matthew, his brother Buford and his sister Hattie, sisters-in-law Inge and Margaret.

I still treasure memories of sharing time & Nature together through many camping trips that Dad & I took; trips to the Northern Arizona Forests, along the Verde River, camping at Havasu Falls, and Oak Creek Canyon near Sedona. We'd hike for the day, exploring anything we could find, make camp, and then talk into the night until we fell asleep watching the sky. We'd explore old abandoned mines together and hike around the ponderosa pine forests.

Dad particularly loved the Boulder area -- this was where he first lived after marrying Liz, while he was finishing a degree at University of Colorado. He would tell of the skiing trips he and Liz used to take into the Rocky Mountains. He told me of my first steps at a house they rented up Boulder Canyon. Several times, we were able to go to Trail Ridge at 12000 feet and enjoy the snow and cold, even in summertime as he remembered back to the times when he lived there.

Dad grew up in Beech Grove Arkansas. On one of the trips we visited the high school building where he had attended. Unfortunately the building had fallen in, but there was still some oak flooring there. I collected some of the flooring and made some pens for him. I had no idea at the time, but because of that, later on, Marv would learn to make pens himself. He became quite accomplished at it and sold them at many places around Dallas, and gave many as gifts to friends and family. He was a good craftsman, and we spoke quite a bit about a shared appreciation for the beauty of the wood itself that could be brought out by good workmanship. Even a very young Matthew got in on the action when he took a liking to taking those very pens out of his "Goompa's" pockets.

Dad was very much a hands-on person, never hesitating to dig directly into something and work on it. If it was car repair, house repair, building enclosures for cats (for Mom), putting in floors, or really any task, he'd figure out how to get done what he needed and just go do it. It if could be improvised, he'd figure out how to do it.

When he was serving on the Blue Ridge in the Navy, Dad was deployed to the South China Sea and frequently liked to tell of his time and experiences on shore leave in TsingTao and Shanghai ... especially about having learned a little Chinese from one of the local children there.

Dad always put God First in all things... he lived by what he understood from scripture, and in all that he did, he prayed and considered God's will in making his decisions. He always expressed an unwavering trust in God to take care of him and his family through all things, and he communicated that trust to us. And he showed it and communicated it in difficult times as well as in good times. As long as was possible, he continued to read and try to learn more from God's word, even after I know it was hard for him to read due to eyesight. Many, many times he kept each of us in the family in his prayers & he told us so.

He loved teaching and the studying he did to teach class. He loved seeing the connections from one piece of scripture to another, and working to get a better understanding of God, then trying to convey that to others.