Marcus David Canipe

Marcus David Canipe, 93, was surrounded by love and peacefully transitioned from this earth on July 25, 2025, due to complications from congestive heart and renal failures as well as non-Hodgkins lymphoma. For the past 25 years, he called Georgetown, Texas, his home; he passed away at Baylor Scott & White Hospital in Round Rock, TX.

He was born in Hickory, NC, on March 7, 1932 to Evan and Bessie Canipe. He was the oldest of 10 children, named after two of his grandfathers (Henry Marcus Kanipe and David Pickney Canipe); known as Dave or David to his family, and Mark to his friends and colleagues. He came into this world during the Great Depression, a time when unemployment was high, food was scarce, malnutrition and starvation was common, and hardships strained family relationships. It was from this environment that his industrious character, curious nature, and personal values were forged — and where his life long pursuit of knowledge began.

As a child, he would constantly look for ways to make money and find food, whether it was by selling the Grit (“America’s Greatest Family Newspaper”), delivering groceries, redeeming soft drink bottles, or creating a makeshift bicycle repair shop with his brother, Earl. At age 15, he used a forged birth certificate to join the National Guard. Two days after turning 17, and with his mother’s permission, he joined the US Air Force, where he was stationed at various Air Force bases before becoming a cryptographic operator on Johnston Atoll in the South Pacific.

On November 3rd, 1951, he met the love of his life, Dorothy Jean Williams, at Mars Hill College where he was visiting his brother Earl. A year later to the day, he was discharged from the service. Dave and Dot married on June 27, 1953, in Newport, TN. Just last month they celebrated their 72nd wedding anniversary in Georgetown with their four children. They began their journey in Knoxville, TN, where Mark began a 47-year career in the pest control business starting with Orkin Exterminating, Co.

Mark rose through the ranks in a career that took him and his family across the country with stops in Columbia, TN; Little Rock, AR; Doraville, GA; Wichita, KS; Merriam, KS; Austin, TX (twice); Claremont, CA; Grapevine, TX; and Upland CA. In the 35 years spent with Orkin, he managed four branch offices and then district offices for 16, plus managing Orkin’s Mexico operations. Mark left Orkin in 1988 to became a partner of Cal-Western Pest Control in Arcadia, CA. After he and his partner sold their business, he retired to Georgetown, TX, in 2001, to be close to his two daughters and grandchildren.

Mark was a lifelong learner — an avid reader of non-fiction. He took up golf in his 60s (didn’t hit it far, but he hit straight and found a lot of golf balls). He was a road warrior that took his family on car trips across the country to visit family, the national parks, and almost every state in a country that he truly loved. In the service he sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge on a ship bound for Hawaii; he spent a couple of weeks in Occupied Japan, visited Mt Rushmore just a few years after it was finished, traveled Route 66 with his family before the interstate system was completed, caravanned in his motorhome with Dot, his business partner and his wife from Southern California to Alaska. He toured London and Paris, the countryside of England, and then stood on the beaches of Normandy with his son Marcus. While overseeing operations in Mexico, he and Dot frequently visited Mexico; he taught himself Spanish as an adult.

Not one to be idle during retirement, Mark sat on the Board of Directors for Chisholm-Trail Special Utility District for three terms. He played in a men’s golf league, and he and his wife, Dot, became active in the Texas Republican party, even serving as delegates to the state convention. He studied and managed his investments, outperforming the markets with the same passion and commitment that made him successful in business.

In addition to his long-standing service and licensing in the pest control industry, he served in various capacities on local and state boards, commissions, and committees in several states and helped establish a Chair in Entomology at Texas A&M. He was a 32nd degree Scottish Rite Mason in Columbia, TN, No. 31, where he held active membership since 1958. He was bestowed the honorific title of Kentucky Colonel in 1967. He was raised Southern Baptist and had a quiet faith that anchored his values.

Mark was preceded in death by his parents, Evan and Bessie, his sister Lois and brother Fred, and four infant siblings. He is survived by wife, Dorothy Williams Canipe of Georgetown; brother Earl Canipe of Abingdon, VA; sisters Joyce Greene of Asheville, NC; and Sara Heffner (Kenneth) of Hickory, NC; his children, Marcus, Jr. (Carol) of Overland Park, KS, Marty Canipe-Lax (Jim) of Austin, TX, Jan Beechinor (Will) of Austin, TX, and Brad Canipe (Karyn) of Dallas TX. He is also a proud grandparent of seven grandchildren and five great-children as well as numerous nephews and nieces.

Funeral and celebration of life services will be held at 2:00pm on Saturday, August 2, 2025, at Cook-Walden/Capital Parks Funeral Home & Cemetery in Pflugerville, Texas. Visitation will begin at 1:00 pm and interment will take place immediately following the services.

The family suggests that memorial contributions be made to Baylor Scott & White Central Texas Foundation (https://ctxfoundation.bswhealth.com)