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Received the sad news from Mark Shields that Mark Harju died on Sunday June 15, 2025:
"Just learned from Bayley, Mark Harju's wife, that he passed away last Sunday. I have no further details but she indicated there are not any plans for a memorial service. They moved about a year ago to California to be closer to family as Mark's Parkinson's disease worsened. You can send Bayley a message at mark.harju@gmail.com I have wonderful memories of Mark from football and basketball at LFHS and Mrs. Thorne-Thomsen's English class. We had a lot of fun with wiffle ball baseball games with Sully Read Bob Shigenaka, and others during warm summer nights. Mark was very active recently in building support for the Veterans' memorial in Lake Forest that honored Carl Thorne-Thomsen, Bill Rawson and other veterans who died in service. He started work with LFHS to have a memorial for them at the high school. Hopefully that will come to fruition. Mark will be deeply missed. Mark Shields"
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Ed Poole
Mark, one of our Class Officers... one of the years (Junior year maybe) he was our President! As basketball manager I remember Mark as the "play-maker." Dribbling, darting in & out of opposing defenses... he was one of the best! I remember talking to him about his Parkinsons at one of our Reunions. He seemed to "carry" that with the same amount of courage and strength we saw in him during those high school years. Farewell, my President! We'll miss you...
Bob Stark
Mark was a fabulous athlete and even better person and friend! I still recall one basketball game with only a few seconds left on the clock Mark's teammate passed the ball into him at the other teams end of the court. Mark took two steps and launched the ball the length of the court. The result was "nothing but net!!!"
Great memory of a great classmate!
Steve Penner
I'm sad to hear about Mark recently passing away. He was One of everybody's favorites in the class of 1966. I think his greatest attribute was that Marc Harju was always nice to all his classmates… Not to mention that he was also a fabulous high school athlete. Sorry to lose one of the favorites of our high school buddies. You will be greatly missed by everyone. Steve Penner
Chico Converse
Very sad to hear about Mark's pssing. He was good to all, a genuine fine fellow. I seem to rember Mark making some quzzical cooment about the Righteous Brothers in 8th grade English class. i might have the wrong grade, but what he said was funny.
Tony Weigel (1962-Early 1966)
I'm proud to have been his teammate.
He was a true gentleman, both On and Off the Field.
Rick Kraus
It is hard for me to write about Mark. When I moved to LF in 1964, I had few friends until I made the basketball team. Mark was welcoming and became a life long friend through the years. We had several adventures in HS. In the fall of 1969 while in college he picked me up from Indianapolis and we traveled in his VW to DC for the demonstrations against the war in Vietnam . We went to a Braves game in ATL when I lived there. Throw in a few Cubs games and one Sox’s game when I’d come to visit my folks. Most of all I remember him organizing a Trivia email game during the shut in of COVID, the last reunion of the class of 1966, and the last time I saw him when Dick Ackart and I came to LF to take him to a Butler/DePaul basketball game. (We never made it to the game because of sleet and rain and instead ate pizza at Mark’s house and watched the game on TV.) I’ll sorely miss you Mark.
Cobi Witberg (Stein)
I came to know Mark not during our high school years, but as a member of the Budget Committee for the last LFHS Class of 1966 Reunion, a Trivia Buff, a contact person to Terry Moran (who provided music at the reunion), and his expertise in technology. How fortunate I was to have Mark on our team. Whatever he was facing during his illness, he kept on going, kept on moving, continued to press on, with no complaints. I believe what follows sums it up. Author is unknown. Mark will not be forgotten, Cobi Witberg Stein
Marty Burns
It is sad to realize that Mark is no longer with us. In recent years when returning to LF for visits and reunions, we reminisced about the good old times growing up and at LFHS. I first met Mark when he moved to LF as a teenager and lived on Ridge Road in West LF. As youngsters, we biked all over and participated in hard fought baseball and basketball games fortunately on the same side at the Everett school playground. As we grew older Mark was the host of regular card games which he uncannily bested most opponents. Our friendship remained strong thru the years, but as we all know that was easy to do because of Mark’s engaging and charismatic personality. Mark will be remembered for his unwavering faithfulness in all aspects of his life. We will miss him dreadfully, but will hold dear his wonderful memories.