Mark Vincent Bayley

Mark Vincent Bayley was born in Manhattan Beach, CA on July 23, 1962, the second youngest of 8 children. He resided in Manhattan Beach most of his life. In 2001, Mark met and married his wife Amy and moved to Redondo Beach. He became ill in August of this year and passed away on October 19, 2007 at the age of 45.

Mark graduated from Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach, and attended college at El Camino Jr. High. While at El Camino, he demonstrated a remarkable ability in Mathematics and a natural talent with ceramics. Mark spent many hours potting and his Mother, Shirley, still cherishes many of his beautiful pots and vases.

Mark followed in the footsteps of his Father, Hank, and several of his brothers and began learning the craft of custom house painting at the age of 20. Mark's dad had been a contractor in the Southern California area for over 30 yrs, and Mark learned the craft from him. After his Dad passed away on April 15, 1980, Mark continued in the painting profession, working with his brothers, Dave and Andy.

Mark's interests included target shooting, fishing--both fresh and salt water, spending time in the desert and High Sierras, and perhaps, most importantly, playing with his three adorable little girls.

Mark especially loved fishing and would go out often with Dave, Andy and their good friend, Scott Parkinson. They fished for albacore and dorado in the waters Southwest of San Diego, and for trout in the Eastern Sierra, most often on the Upper Owens River and Lower Rock Creek.

Mark was a skilled builder of custom fishing rods and, in his lifetime, produced many beautiful ones. He gave many of these to friends and family members as gifts. Those of us who own one, consider it a prized possession.

Certainly, the center of Mark's universe, aside from his wife Amy, was his daughters, Laura, Sarah and Kayla. Anyone who knew him would tell you that Mark

loved those girls more than just about anything in the world, as they did him.

Mark enjoyed nothing more than coming home from work at night and playing with Amy and the girls, watching TV, taking them to the park or for a walk around the

neighborhood.

One of their most special times was going to the Redondo Beach Pier to play arcade games and go on the kiddie rides. When they had spent their last quarter,

and played their last game, Mark would always made sure each girl got a prize. If they hadn't won quite enough tickets, he would discreetly slip the attendant whatever was needed so that no one left empty handed. He was that kind of a Dad.

Another favorite thing of Mark and Amy’s was taking the girls out for ice cream -- one big bowl with sprinkles and three spoons.

To those who had the pleasure of knowing him, Mark was a loyal friend, a caring brother and son, a loving and devoted husband and father, and a humble and gentle soul.

It's a tragedy that a guy like Mark should come to the end of his days at such an early age. He will be dearly missed and his memory will not soon be forgotten.

Those of us who are left behind will miss Mark, but we’ll also look forward to spending Eternity with him, relaxing on a sun-drenched hillside, playing with the girls in the afternoon sun and heading down around sunset with him to cast our lines into the water together.