William "Mark" Gosdin

William Marcus “Mark” Gosdin passed away peacefully on March 19, 2011. He was born in Leesburg (Camp County), Texas, on March 28, 1918, to John Jefferson Gosdin and Lela Kate (Townsend) Gosdin. He had three sisters: Jessie Ruth (Gosdin) Howard, Johnnie Rebecca (Gosdin) Harris, and Rachel Ann (Gosdin) Fortado. In 1923, the J. J. Gosdin family (along with the Townsend parents) moved to Shallowater, Texas, on two railcars, bringing a disassembled cotton gin and enough lumber for 3 houses, one to live in and two to rent. Unfortunately, the Shallowater Gin burned shortly after it was placed in operation and the grandparents moved back to Leesburg. Mark’s father died when he was only nine years old, leaving the family to struggle to make a living. After graduating from Shallowater High School in 1936, Mark took a job at the Furr Foods store on Broadway in Lubbock, where he worked from 1938 to 1939. He enrolled at Texas Technological College for two years, while living in Shallowater and hitch-hiking to classes and working in Lubbock. While working at Furr’s, he met Leah McWhorter, and they were married on June 16, 1940. Mark and Leah had three children: John Mark, Gary Robert, and Cherie Ann. With the outbreak of World War II, Mark enlisted in the U. S. Army Air Corps. He was assigned to several military posts around the country (including Fort Lewis, Washington, and Bryan Army Airfield) where he served primarily as a draftsman who worked with construction plans and designs for military installations and airfields. On occasion, he helped make training more realistic by dropping “powder bombs” from the open bay of an airplane as they flew over the dug-in soldiers below. After the end of World War II, Mark worked with a friend from the military at a farm implement and supply store in Crosbyton, Texas. Realizing he needed to complete his college education, he and Leah soon moved to Wolfforth, Texas, where they lived with her parents for a time as he took advantage of the GI Bill and re-entered Texas Tech. He supplemented the family income by working part-time at a floral shop and nursery near the college campus. He earned B.S. and M.S. degrees from Texas Technological College in 1949 and 1955. While at Texas Tech he served as Superintendent of Grounds, where he was instrumental in early campus beautification efforts. He later served on the faculty of the Horticulture and Park Administration Department, where he taught courses on turfgrass management, landscape construction, and park management. During the 1950’s, as the three children grew older, Mark and Leah frequently spent holidays visiting aunts and uncles and a growing number of cousins in Wolfforth, Sulphur Springs, Hereford and Graham, Texas, as well as making a trip on Route 66 to Sacramento, California. Particularly memorable were the annual McWhorter family summer campouts in the mountains of New Mexico. Mark was one of the main organizers and planners for each of these reunions. Mark always loved to slip away from camp after breakfast to fish for brook trout in the mountain streams. Mark made a lifelong impression on many young men through his commitment and service as a Boy Scout leader. He was a scoutmaster with Troop 12 and later Troop 528 in Lubbock. He spent numerous weekends at Camp Post teaching young men about outdoor skills and natural sciences. Perhaps the highlight, however, were the canoe trips with his two sons and other Explorer Scouts to the Boundary Waters wilderness area in Minnesota and Canada. He was ultimately recognized with the Silver Beaver award, one of Scouting’s highest awards. Professionally, Mark used his personal skills and park administration expertise to leave a legacy for all Texans through his contributions to the current system of Texas state parks. In 1963, during Governor John Connolly’s administration, Texas Tech College was commissioned to conduct a study of the Texas State Parks and to make recommendations for needed improvements. Mark was selected as program leader for the study. He assembled a group of dedicated multi-disciplinary graduate students, and this team developed a master plan for Texas State Parks that was presented to Governor Connolly, Lieutenant Governor Preston Smith, and the Texas Legislature. In 1964, he resigned his teaching position and moved his family to Austin, when Mark was selected to become Director of Park Services for the newly created Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Some of the many programs and projects implemented under his leadership include: the $75 million Park Development Bond Program, the Texas Outdoor Recreation Plan, and the acquisition and development of thousands of acres of state park lands. From 1964 through 1968, he personally supervised the planning and development of the LBJ State Park, under the demanding eyes of President Johnson and Lady Bird. He told one story of walking the newly acquired state park property with LBJ to look at some old homesteads with several buildings being dilapidated and ready to fall down. Mark stepped aside at one old building to let the President go in first. LBJ said, “Oh no! You go in first. There could be somebody in there with a shotgun.”

During his 19 years with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Mark was actively involved in state park acquisitions, more than doubling existing state park acreage. State parks bearing his imprint include the following: Whitney, Falcon, Martin Dies, Jr., Mustang Island, Dinosaur Valley, Hueco Tanks, Colorado Bend, Enchanted Rock, Franklin Mountains, and Seminole Canyon. In 1968, he was recognized by his peers with the Pugsley Award, perhaps the most prestigious national award for contributions in the fields of conservation, parks and recreation. Mark retired from Texas Parks and Wildlife on January 31, 1983. Then, on July 30, 1984, his wife Leah died, after 43 years of marriage. On May 15, 1986, after a long distance courtship, Mark married his second wife Martha S. (Tana) Spivey, who was Leah’s first cousin, and became the stepdad of Susan (Spivey) Thomas and Jay Spivey. Mark and Tana resided in Deming and Albuquerque, New Mexico, for the next 20 years. During their retirement years Mark and Tana traveled extensively to Europe, the Panama Canal, Alaska, and Canada. In 2006, when Mark’s health began to fail due to Parkinson’s Disease, they returned to Austin. Mark was preceded in death by his parents, his first wife Leah McWhorter Gosdin, and his siblings. Mark is survived by his wife, Tana, his sons John Mark and wife Jan of Austin, Gary and wife D’Awn of Irving, and daughter Cherie of Dripping Springs, as well as stepson Jay Spivey and wife Joanna, of Deming, New Mexico. He is “granddad” to six and “great-granddad” to eight.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that any memorial donations be made to further his lifelong mission of perpetuating Texas state parks, at Texans for State Parks, P.O. Box 41480, Austin, TX 78704 (www.Texansforstateparks.org).

After a family graveside service, interment will be at Capital Memorial Park Cemetery in Austin, Texas, on the 1st of April, 2011. And lastly, “Happy 93rd Birthday to Mark” on March 28th! Condolences may be left at www.cookwaldenfuneralhome.com