Mark Nolan Slamowitz

Mark N. (Slambo) Slamowitz, born in Brooklyn, New York in 1958, was, at minimum, a full standard deviation above the rest so this attempt is destined to fall correspondingly shorter in illuminating the essence of this brilliant, complex man.

With his surviving parents, Esther and Seymour Slamowitz, and brother Stuart, Mark spent his early years in New York and later the family moved to New Jersey. Mark and Stuart grew up playing ice hockey on a frozen lake. His father bought and Mark and Stuart installed flood lights lakeside allowing them to continue skating after dark as long as their mother never, ever, even today, found out how much those lamps cost. Mark, as an adult, often recalled what he described as idyllic childhood with parents who were wholly committed to his happiness and answering his insatiable thirst for knowledge. Mark’s paternal grandmother would say, “If Mark wanted the moon, Seymour would find a way to haul it in for him.”

Mark knew from a very early age he was going to be an engineer and his predisposition towards manipulating the physical universe was immediately apparent when he rigged a secret trap, a Rube Goldberg style machine, to catch his intruding mother when she attempted to dust his room. She was found out.

Between hockey and motor cross, a sport Mark also loved, and presumably other teenage and young adult endeavors, including a summer job for a man named Charles, who Mark admired beyond description for his mentorship and work ethic, he officially began his engineering career studying at Steven’s Institute of Technology where he would study, somehow without a bathroom break, for all of the sun lit hours and much of the night. His focus and concentration were the stuff of legend and his hours never normalized.

After graduation in 1980, Mark moved to Arizona to work for Motorola. Always good with money and able to sacrifice for a greater good, he bought his first house at age 21. After a couple years in AZ, he moved to Washington state for another position at Fairchild and, there, he built a house, taking great care to design it to his exacting specifications. Another move found him in Portland, OR, where he married and bought another house while working at Bit and Lattice. There, too, in an entrepreneurial mood, he founded Silicon Knights. Steve Jobs “screwed him out of a ton of money” when Apple cancelled the Mac clone program when Steve returned to Apple. In 2000, after the marriage ended, he moved to Tempe/Chandler to work for what became his beloved Broadcom Corp, where he found his niche and intellectual home. He was every bit the company man in the best sense of that phrase. He was well-regarded by his colleagues despite a “passionate” disposition, which tried the souls of many men, but always to get the best outcome, even if it meant staying up to 4 AM, which it usually did. He would not compromise regarding the integrity of any project or circuit and he sought only to please himself by giving it everything he had and, of course, the Silicon Gods who hold sway over the laws of physics.

A colleague had this to offer:

"Mark had a very successful engineering career in memory design, notably for the last 15 years at Broadcom Corp. He was responsible for memory architecture, circuit design and solving the most difficult problems. He was passionate about his work and was always committed to do whatever it takes to complete any task he put his mind to… being a very effective designer and loving to dive into the details, he made everyone around him better. Regardless of how full his plate, he always made time to help and teach others. He is and will always be deeply missed."

Another, Duane Jacobson, says:

"I first met Mark nearly 30 years ago, where he was a mentor to me at my first job in Beaverton, Oregon. He was always willing to take time from his day to listen and give advice. I’m certain there are many others who have also experienced this generosity. I’m saddened by his absence today, but feel fortunate to have many good memories of experiences and conversations with Mark."

Mark’s intelligence was so crammed into his skull, his cranium alone once blocked the entire silhouette of a 350 lb. coworker in a meeting. To this day, no engineer present can comprehend the refractory, visually impossible nature of the experience. Or maybe his head was just that big. It was a funny story, which Mark shared often, along with a vast array of others, some pretty funny, a few off-color, always told as if it was his job to tell you this joke and make you laugh and then he would always double check to ensure you weren’t offended.

In 2007, feeling a little blue about the price of his Broadcom stock shares in beginning of the global financial melt down, he put a profile on a dating site where he received a nice message from Becky Gold. He replied, and they were talking (nonstop) thereafter. The first phone call was three hours, if that says anything about how much Mark loved to talk and how skillfully he communicated. On Valentines Day 2011, Mark bought a fabulous home in Chandler for him and Becky and Shelby, their beloved cat. On Valentines Day 2014, Mark and Becky were married. Mark’s bachelor days were over! To be replaced with unlimited spaghetti and Becky’s veggie tacos! Coincidentally, they were both vegetarian when they met and Becky loves to cook. Mark loved to eat. It was the ultimate culinary symbiosis.

Also in 2011, he fulfilled a lifelong dream of seeing the last launch of the Shuttle Discovery at Cape Canaveral. While for Mark and Becky it was the experience of a lifetime, the journey he endured just to walk to the viewing area was incredibly arduous. This is because, when Mark was in college, he was diagnosed with highly debilitating rheumatoid arthritis. He could have given up and listened to the doctor who said he’d spend his life in a wheel chair. But instead he went on full bore into his engineering career and testing the limits of his intellect and the boundaries of what we currently understand about physics and math. While he fought and lived a brave, productive, and ultimately incredible life, the rheumatoid eventually spread to his lungs and heart. Faced with requiring a heart and double lung transplant, he chose instead live his way with his original organs and integrity and rebellious audacity all in tact.

In his last two years, despite getting progressively sicker, he was happy. He enjoyed his home and unbelievable surround sound. He just loved it. And whether he was watching a chick flick or Rocky in amazing stereo sound, he’d cry with the same vigor. He felt everything deeply, perhaps more so because of heightened mortal awareness. He died with no regrets and felt he’d lived a full life despite it ultimately being shorter than he would have preferred. He faced it bravely and realistically, with full knowledge and acceptance of its devastating terminal nature. Witnessing someone face such crushing odds so courageously, so brave beyond reason, is a once in a lifetime honor, a gift from Mark to those he left behind.

What’s more, Mark maintained his sense of humor to the end. He deeply loved and had great respect for his parents and everything they did for him and his brother, Stuart, while growing up. Mark had one foundational theme guiding his thoughts and practices: sacrifice. You had to be willing to make the sacrifice (even if it meant Becky got no sleep). And he would never ask anything from anyone that he wouldn’t be willing to give of himself. For years, Mark took on the charity of feeding homeless cats that were left behind during the recession. Becky continues this tradition in his honor.

It was story-book fitting that the last day of Mark’s life was his last official day as a Broadcom employee. Broadcom had just been purchased and the new company was releasing him from employment that very Friday afternoon. Though he hadn’t worked in the office in some time due to his illness, he’d asked Becky the date the day prior and just about the time he would have been heading home for the weekend, he headed out one last time, leaving behind some very sad, very grateful friends and family, who will miss him always.

Mark is survived by his wife Becky, parents Seymour and Esther Slamowitz of Rio Rancho, brother and sister in law Dr. Stuart Slamowitz and Debbie Slamowitz of Saratoga CA, and stepson Dallas Gold and his wife Dr. Parisa Morris of Phoenix AZ. And many friends who stand out as stellar human beings.