- Date Of Death: December 30, 2016
- State: Idaho
Mark Hayden Willig, 64, died at home, surrounded by family, on December 30, 2016.
Born in Newton, New Jersey, Mark was a freethinker, union man, and beloved teacher, father, grandfather, and mentor to many. Though known locally as a teacher, he carried skills from an eclectic past and travels throughout the US and Central and South America. Always independent, he left home at 16 to strike out on his own. Mark sold hot dogs on the streets of New Orleans, worked with his hands in the forests and towns of Northern California, and was on the crew of the original Renaissance Faire.
In 1982, he met his future wife, Maura Lee Quinn, in a college Geology class. They were married in 1983 in his parents’ backyard in Agoura Hills, California. Mark worked for several years as an insurance adjuster, a job made more lively by his desire to advocate for working families. But never a man meant for an office job, he imagined a life for his family far from the LA freeways. In 1989, he persuaded Maura to move to what he always called “the great state of Montana”, where he had hiked in Glacier National Park as a young man.
Mark completed his degree in Geology at the University of Montana in 1992. He taught middle and high school sciences in Arlee, Montana and Idaho Falls, Idaho, before moving to Grangeville, Idaho in 1993. Mark’s creative teaching style and infamous stories reached generations of students. His goal was never just to teach the subject at hand, but to help students learn how to think.
