Mark Allen Nelson

Mark Allen Nelson, 75, passed away unexpectedly but peacefully on November 8, 2025, while on vacation in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada. True to his adventurous spirit, he was vacationing in Canada because he wanted to pet the polar bears.

Mark was born in September 22, 1950, in Huntington Park, California, the oldest of 9 children. He graduated from Bishop Amat Memorial High School in La Puente, California, and graduated from The College of Santa Fe, Santa Fe, New Mexico, with a Bachelor of Business Administration. Mark was predeceased in death by his parents, Jack and Lorraine Nelson, and his brothers David and John. He is survived by his son, Travis P. Nelson, and grandchildren, Jack, Alexis, Ryan, and Matthew, as well as several siblings. He is also survived by his girlfriend, Cynthia Weiss, and his former spouse and friend, Linda Nelson.

Mark lived a life of adventure, was dedicated to his family, friends, and had a variety of interests. While at The College of Santa Fe, he was a proud member of Delta Sigma Phi Fraternity, served as the Fraternity’s treasurer, and was a photographer for the school’s yearbook. Mark spent a year working at a local Santa Fe radio station, KVSF, as disc jockey, as well as a radio advertising salesman. After his father started Nelson Air Conditioning in Southern California, Mark returned to the Golden State, enrolled at LA Trade-Tech to become an HVAC journeyman, and joined his father in the family business. Mark would continue to work in the air conditioning industry until 2005, when he retired.

Community service was always a passion of Mark’s. This was epitomized by his decades-long service to the San Dimas Mountain Rescue Team, where he would eventually serve as the team’s captain. There were many times when the pager would go off, sometimes during family dinner, sometimes during Sunday Mass, and Mark would spring into action, and race into the mountains to rescue a stranded hiker, or injured motorist. Beyond the rescue team, Mark also served as president of the San Dimas Chamber of Commerce, and was even named the Chamber of Commerce’s Citizen of the Year for 2010.

Following retirement, Mark emersed himself in hobbies, with two of his favorites being gemology and studying the historical role of barbed wire as “the wire that tamed the west.” He would frequently pack his car full of barbed wire materials, and drive long distances to showcase his proud collection. Mark was active in both the California Barbed Wire Collectors Association and the National Antique Barbed Wire Society.

Perhaps Mark’s greatest hobby was traveling and exploring the world. Long ago his father gave him the advice: “See the world while you can still walk around.” Mark lived up to this advice, and then some! From the ruins of Machu Pichu and the natural simplicity of the Galapagos Islands, to castles in Europe, to island-hopping in the Pacific, to safaris in Africa, to riding a camel in Petra, Jordan, to exploring the pyramids of Egypt, to camping out at the Bridge to Nowhere in the San Gabriel Mountains with his son, and much, much more, Mark saw the world.

Mark was a great repository of his family’s genealogy, and traveled the country and the world to find sites that were relevant to his family’s history. Just months before his passing, he took his

son through Colorado to see graves of Mark’s grandparents and other ancestors. Passing on the family history was always important to Mark.

Mark was a family man. He followed his father into the family business, and helped his father build it into a successful Southern California company. He was loved and admired by his son and grandchildren, and countless others. His younger grandsons would frequently find a random piece of rock, and ask to send a photo of it to grandpa to find out what it was.

Mark lived an active life, a life well-lived. He made his community a better place, and enriched the lives of others through his generous spirit, and selfless” attitude. He will be very deeply missed.