Ealy, Mark Roger Age 74 of Adams

Mark Roger Ealy, 74, of Adams passed away on August 23, 2021, from metastatic malignant melanoma that was diagnosed in June. There will be no services, but he will be thought of often by those who knew and loved him.

Mark was born in central Illinois on May 16, 1947, to Jim and Phoebe Ealy. He graduated from Mattoon High School in 1965 and went on to serve four years in the US Air Force as an aircraft mechanic. After his discharge from the military, he attended Lakeland Junior College in Mattoon, receiving his associates degree in 1972. He continued his studies at Sangamon State University (now University of Illinois at Springfield) and received his Bachelor’s Degree in 1974 with an emphasis on junior high education.

After being introduced to each other on a blind date in the summer of 1972, Mark married Patty McLane in Illinois on May 25, 1974. The two moved to Wisconsin that fall where Mark spent a year teaching sixth graders in Mauston before relocating to Adams County in 1975 where he then taught for thirty years in the Adams-Friendship Area School District. He taught several subjects to seventh and eighth graders at Friendship School (including the hands-on projects class) for a few years before settling in to teach his favorite subject of American history to local eighth graders in the junior high and then middle school until his retirement in 2005. Mark also coached junior high baseball, football, and wrestling for a good part of his teaching career.

Mark was a member of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Friendship, Adams County Retired Educators, and Roche-A-Cri Bowman. He was also a big fan of the Milwaukee Brewers and the Chicago Bears. He spent many volunteer hours helping with activities at Villa Pines Living Center, working with Friends of Roche-A-Cri State Park, and survey-ing seasonal frog and toad calls for the Wisconsin DNR. He liked to fish, bow hunt for deer, canoe, tent camp, and geocache. He and Patty traveled to all fifty states together but enjoyed the Colorado mountains and the Oregon coast the most. They also had many favorite places to visit around Wisconsin, but in recent years they focused on hiking the Ice Age Trail route in the central part of the state, covering over three hundred miles in their time on foot.

After surviving prostate cancer in 1999, Mark rode his bicycle at least 1000 miles every year, most recently putting 2500 miles on the bike in 2020. He could be seen riding the roads of Adams County in his yellow shirt from the time that the asphalt was free of snow and ice until the cold temperatures late in the year had him hanging up the bike for a few months each winter.

Mark is survived by his wife of 47 years, Patty, brothers John (Barb) Ealy of Ohio and Tom Ealy of Illinois, sister Pat (Joel) Nye of Hawaii, and sisters-in-law Kathy (Bill) DeVoe of Mauston and Nancy (Bob) Lazar of Illinois. Although having no children of his own, he was Uncle Mark to thirteen nieces and nephews and twenty “greats.” He was preceded in death by his parents and many aunts and uncles.

Mark left us during a stretch of summer days that would have been perfect for bike rides on the back roads of Adams County. He left us at a time of year when the woods and fields were full of deer and the waters were full of large bass. He left us when the wildflowers lined the trails and roadsides and the sun was shining warmly on fields of corn and hay. He left us when his baseball team was on top and his football team had yet to lose a game. While he left us before the days got too cold and the hours of daylight got to be too few, he left us too soon

 

Memories of Mark and your condolences may be directed to the family at PO Box 67, Adams, WI 53910.

Source: WRJC.com

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