Mark was born the son of an Air Force Lieutenant on a military base in San Antonio Texas in 1954. He spent many summers growing up on his Grandfather’s 160 acre farm in Montgomery County, Iowa where he helped his Grandmother gather eggs from the hen house, weed the garden by hand, set the table for dinner, and hunt for arrowheads after Sunday school. His Great-Grandfather was the Methodist minister of the town’s only church. He helped his Grandfather call in the cows twice a day, clean the milk room, call and slop the hogs, bale and put up the hay, and pick corn from his lap on the seat of a 4 row, tractor mount International. Mark learned to swim in a horse tank, learned to drive in the pastures behind the wheel of a ’52 Chevy pickup, learned to hunt squirrels with a 22, and quail and pheasant with a single shot 20 gauge.

He graduated from West Des Moines Valley High School in 1972 where he was president of the senior class and the Youth Advisory Council to The Iowa Crime Commission. He worked 50 – 65 hours a week as a laborer for a paving contractor before attending Iowa State University where he received a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture in 1978. He worked as a framing carpenter during the summers and a trim carpenter during the winters to help pay for his education. He married his first wife Paula of 25 years in 1977, who died suddenly in 2002 of a brain aneurysm. She was a grant writer for the Des Moines Community School District. Mark has a son Logan, who graduated from Drake University and currently attends graduate school in Chicago at the Illinois Institute of Technology pursuing a Master of Science in Environmental Management and Sustainability.

Mark’s father Dennis, owned and operated a small, open-shop business that employed 80 people or so for nearly 30 years until his retirement in 1994. His uncle Bob was a WWII Marine and his uncle Don was in the Air Force stationed in Okinawa. His aunt Marian is still active as an Emmy award winning, independent movie producer and a Board Member of the University of Iowa Foundation. His brother Todd is the managing partner of an international, geo-technical consulting firm headquartered in Seattle, and his sister-in-law Paula is a professor at a private college in Massachusetts.

Mark re-married in 2006 to Bethany after meeting on Match.com. She graduated from Valley High School as well in 1970, returned to complete her studies at ISU in 2004, and earned a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies. She has two, adult daughters Abbey and Annie, a son-in-law Jason who is a partner in a small, wireless communications business, and 5 year old grandson Gunnar. Her father was a WWII combat Marine and her brother ran a small farming operation in Warren County, Iowa for many years until the farm crisis in the early 80’s. Her husband was an attorney and partner with the Nyemaster Law Firm, argued before the United States Supreme Court, and died of carcinoid cancer in 2002. Beth began her career as a nurse and has been involved with medical malpractice and claims work for the past 15 years. She currently works for the Patterson Law Firm in Des Moines.

Mark began his professional career as an Architect in1979, obtained his national certification and state license in 1985, and was involved with the design and administration of countless projects throughout Des Moines and around the state. It was during these years that he began to understand the workings and requirements of a small business. He subsequently became involved in commercial construction as Vice President of a general contractor with primary emphasis on major medical facilities on the campuses of Mercy and Methodist hospitals in Des Moines and Clive. From 1992-1998 he operated his own small business specializing in the design and construction of large, single family homes and from 1998 until his retirement in 2004, he was again involved in large scale commercial construction projects with a general contractor.

Mark has been actively involved as a volunteer and board member in numerous community service and charitable organizations throughout his life including the West Des Moines Little League, AmeriCorps, and the Iowa Chapter of the National Committee for the Prevention of Child Abuse.