Mark Raymond

Mark was born in Lebanon, New Hampshire in 1958 to John and Sally Raymond. He is survived by his wife of 38 years Kim, daughter, Kira, husband Ron & their son Elijah, Son Patrick, wife Sumer, their children Lilie, Liam & Lyla, daughter, Bryanna, son Daniel, future daughter-in-law Katy, brother Douglas, wife Leslie, brother Michael, & sister, Deb, husband Chris, along with nieces & nephews. Growing up Mark did a lot of camping with his family, which started his love of camping & the great outdoors. He spent summers in North Adams, Massachusetts going to the “Fish pond” camp ground with his family & had a great time fishing & swimming in the lake. He also visited his beloved great aunts in Barton, VT every summer getting his love of antiques from them. Mark always knew what he wanted to do at a young age, and worked his hardest to get every step of the way. He was known to always have his nose in a book. His hard work paid off when he got an AF scholarship to Norwich University in the Fall of 76. While there he volunteered at the college radio station WNUB and quickly worked his way up to becoming the manager, which he loved doing. He also & a PT job in nearby Montpelier where he worked on weekends and in the summer at WSKI. He met the love of his life in the summer after his freshman year on the upper parade ground of Norwich University. He started talking to Kim & kept “accidentally’ bumping into her. After being persistent he finally wore her down they started dating. After a year of being together, & with her father’s blessing, he put her ring in the fridge with some flowers next to it to surprise her. Of course she said yes. They married on April 14th, 1978. He graduated from NU with a BS in Chemistry & was commissioned into the Air Force in 1980, moving first to CA for training, then onto Great falls, MT in December of that year. In 1982 their first child, Kira was born bringing all the joy a first child can bring. Mark loved dressing her in “boys clothes” pants & t-shirts (much to Kim’s chagrin) In-between that & sharing his love of coffee with her at an early age the bond they would forever cherish was cemented, marking her a forever daddy’s girl. In 1986 they were blessed with a son, Patrick. (Fortunately Kim did not put Patrick in girl’s clothes.) Patrick was the perfect baby, sleeping through the night from the first night at home on. After only 6 short weeks of life in Montana Mark moved his little family to Colorado Springs, CO to start a new job in Space. In 1988 while in Colorado their third child, Bryanna was born, helping outnumber the ratio of boys to girls again. She was a sweet, smiley, tiptoer who loved following her daddy and siblings around. Mark also earned his Masters from Webster University in Space Systems Management. The family moved to a small rocket town in Woomera, South Australia in 1989 where the family thrived. While there they pursued their love of traveling visiting Perth, Adelaide, Glenelg, Canberra, Melbourne, Darwin, Sydney, Alice Springs, Coober Pedy, along with the Great Ocean Road as well, and on the last trip they went to Grampians National Park with good friends. All of these trips were to see the sights, fauna & flora & visit vineyards (something that would become important later on) In Woomera they made lifelong friends, in particular the Bailey’s, the Lisherness’ John Bystroff & the Gibsons. After leaving active Duty in 1992, the family moved to Kansas in 1993 where Mark became the Area Director of Prison Fellowship spreading God’s word to prisoners all through Kansas. He worked with Habitat for Humanity. He loved sharing his faith with the prisoners even sharing the gospel with people like Susan Smith a convicted murder. After lots of begging for a baby from all three of his children, their last son Daniel was born in 1995, bringing joy to the entire family! The first two months of Daniels life Mark & Kira doted on him, doing anything & everything they could to make life easier for their busy household. In 1997 the family moved one final time back to Colorado Springs, where Mark got a job with Lockheed Martin. His work was very important to him & now he’d gotten a job doing what he loved most. Mark devoted almost all of his adult life to the service of his country. As a missileer, he sat at the controls & managed the codes that enabled the United States to defend itself or counter any aggression seeking to do harm to this nation. Having transitioned from the uniform to his role as a contractor with Lockheed Martin, he was a watch officer charged with the enormous role of watching over our country & our allies to further ensure we remain free from forces capable of destroying our way of life. His work in cutting edge technology enabled him to be a part of a team that delivered tools that were once thought to be impossible and make it work. He was a part of a unique team of experts that brought unheard of success to the department of defense. Mark enjoyed taking the family on yearly vacations in the US, visiting many national parks & historic places in the US such as Yellowstone NP, Grand Tetons NP, Glacier NP, Rocky Mountain NP, Great Sand Dunes NP, Mesa Verde NP, Gettysburg NMP, the Smithsonian, Fort McHenry NM, Washington DC, Bryce NP, Zion NP, Arches NP, Canyon lands NP, Grand Canyon NP, Dinosaur NP, Petroglyph NM, Saguaro NP, Biosphere 2, Alcatraz Island, walking some of the Freedom Trail, Statue of Liberty, Little Bighorn NP, St. Lewis Arch, Arlington National Cemetery, toured the Pentagon before 9/11, Mt. Rushmore NM, the sunken USA Arizona, & most recently visited the Alamo. While his wife Kim worked with CIEE bringing high school foreign students to America, the family hosted 17 students. They added many children to their family, & were able to work on something dearest to his heart. His own effort for world peace. While he loved them all, his first two children Ke & Kang were always special to him being the very first two brought into his family. Because of Kim’s work they were able to travel overseas to the Bahamas, France, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Ireland, Scotland, Jamaica, Reykjavik Iceland, Bahrain, Mexico and Canada. He especially enjoyed Reykjavik Iceland partially due to the “Fact” that Iceland was named such to confuse people so they wouldn’t want to visit, also because it was breathtakingly beautiful. During the last decade of his life Mark became interested and started making wine from scratch. He added beer to the mix 5 years later. After that it only made sense to add coffee to the mix being a long standing coffee drinker and aficionado himself. The last four years he courageously fought cancer, keeping a positive attitude the majority of the time. He visited most of those countries during that time. Most recently he lost his eyesight in April, it was the catalyst that brought the beginning of the end to his long hard battle. Mark loved spending time talking and drinking coffee or a beer with his children & friends, playing Skip Bo and Monopoly & drinking ‘hot chocolate’ & eating popcorn with his grandchildren, or just playing with them and listening to them talk. His relationship with Jesus was very important to him! And he did his best to preach to others, no matter where he went or who he was with. He was a great husband, father, grandfather, father in law, friend, son, brother and neighbor to all whom he met. His family, friends, faith and work were what he cherished most in this world. He will be missed greatly for all these reasons and more! Heaven gained a wonderful person when Mark left this world to be with Jesus.