He is preceded in death by his parents, Frank and Mary Ann Stevens, and is survived by his three siblings — Cathy (Tom Mills) of Chattanooga, TN, Debra of Phoenix, AZ, and Matt of Burbank, CA — and one nephew, Austin Mills of Pittsburgh, PA.
Mark grew up in Kansas City, MO, and Atlanta, GA, but spent most of his life in Memphis. In 1972, he graduated from Wooddale High School, where he was active in the marching band and concert band (playing both the baritone and trumpet), and attended classes at State Technical Institute. He worked for many years as a highly skilled copier technician, most recently with Novatech.
At an early age, Mark demonstrated a great affinity for all things scientific, experimenting with chemistry sets, building lasers, and collecting old lightbulbs and elements from the periodic table. During his teenage summer years, he lit up the family backyard like a stadium with a huge refurbished mercury light — and mischievously turned off streetlamps in the neighborhood with a flashlight mounted on a pole, a prank for which he was immortalized in a family friend’s poem. At Halloween, he amped up the haunted-house scares with a flashing strobe light and high-voltage Jacob’s Ladder (and playfully tormented his sisters with a homemade “electric chair”). One holiday season, he staged a light-and-sound show on the front lawn by constructing a Christmas tree with big blue bulbs that blinked in time to “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.”
His unique creativity was also on display in his handblown glass ornaments and colorful neon art. In addition, Mark enjoyed reading, working on foreign cars (like the Jaguar and MGB he owned), flying his Piper Tomahawk plane, and traveling to the beach, Ozarks, and Arizona desert.
A Celebration of Mark’s Life will be scheduled at a later date.
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