I remember Mark from church as much as school. He was a quiet, friendly very smart young man. Before it killed him, he had become virtually an expert on cystic fibrosis.
Mark was truly a kind and gentle person. We weren't close but he was just the type of person that was a pleasure to be around. We were on the same little league baseball team for a year or so. I remember thinking how extraordinary he was to participate despite the difficulty he had with cystis fibrosis.
You know, there are just some people you can always look up to no matter how old you get. For me, Mark Purdy was one of those people. Perhaps it was that he was staring death in the face for the whole time he was growing up on account of his Cystic Fibrosis, but whatever caused it, Mark had the most incredibly adult and kind and genuinely mature outlooks on life that I ever encountered in all of high school--more so than even most of the best teachers I loved so much. I remember him encouraging people. I remember him being kind to those who felt down. I remember him being fun-loving. I remember him liking people, even those not at all like himself. I even remember him setting up other people for dates. I remember him being quiet about his own scientific accomplishments that earned him all those scholarships that unfortunately for humanity at large he was never able to use. And as he was president of the National Honor Society, I remember him yelling and screaming at me for not applying for membership. It was the only time I had ever seen him get mad at anyone. It puzzled me. [Truthfully, I was not well liked by some of the teachers even though some of them felt forced to give me good grades--I was not always that forgiving of their intellectual shortcomings even though I was not actually disrespectful of them as human beings--so I suspect that I would have been blackballed by one or two of them anyway. Though it is also true that some teachers learned to like me--apparently an acquired taste.] He was probably right. Looking back, my whole life has been a life long study in not protecting my resume, and not really caring about that as much as I should. I guess I should have listened to Mark more than I did.
Chris Sanders
I remember Mark from church as much as school. He was a quiet, friendly very smart young man. Before it killed him, he had become virtually an expert on cystic fibrosis.
Dain Meyer
Mark was truly a kind and gentle person. We weren't close but he was just the type of person that was a pleasure to be around. We were on the same little league baseball team for a year or so. I remember thinking how extraordinary he was to participate despite the difficulty he had with cystis fibrosis.
Holly Hildebrand (Hildebrand)
I didn't know Mark well, but he had an intelligent, wry smile that I loved.
William Cronin
You know, there are just some people you can always look up to no matter how old you get. For me, Mark Purdy was one of those people. Perhaps it was that he was staring death in the face for the whole time he was growing up on account of his Cystic Fibrosis, but whatever caused it, Mark had the most incredibly adult and kind and genuinely mature outlooks on life that I ever encountered in all of high school--more so than even most of the best teachers I loved so much. I remember him encouraging people. I remember him being kind to those who felt down. I remember him being fun-loving. I remember him liking people, even those not at all like himself. I even remember him setting up other people for dates. I remember him being quiet about his own scientific accomplishments that earned him all those scholarships that unfortunately for humanity at large he was never able to use. And as he was president of the National Honor Society, I remember him yelling and screaming at me for not applying for membership. It was the only time I had ever seen him get mad at anyone. It puzzled me. [Truthfully, I was not well liked by some of the teachers even though some of them felt forced to give me good grades--I was not always that forgiving of their intellectual shortcomings even though I was not actually disrespectful of them as human beings--so I suspect that I would have been blackballed by one or two of them anyway. Though it is also true that some teachers learned to like me--apparently an acquired taste.] He was probably right. Looking back, my whole life has been a life long study in not protecting my resume, and not really caring about that as much as I should. I guess I should have listened to Mark more than I did.