Mark L. Holmes ’60

Mark died Aug. 17, 2018, after a struggle with cancer.

Tulsa (Okla.) Central High School produced a bumper crop of four Tiger cubs in 1956: Mark, Gary Martin, Jim McDermott, and Jack Siggins. Mark’s father was in the Class of 1932. Mark majored in geological engineering and joined NROTC. He rowed on the 150-pound crew for two years and joined Cloister Inn. His Navy commitment was stretched to three-plus years by the Berlin and Cuba crises, all spent serving on the recovery ship USS Current, recovering, among others, a Japanese miniature submarine sunk in the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack.

Mark combined his two enthusiasms with a master’s degree in geological oceanography at the University of Washington in 1967. He became senior oceanographer at the university and earned a Ph.D. there in 1973. He joined the U.S. Geological Survey and spent his entire oceanographic career between that opening and at Washington, retiring in 2008 as research professor emeritus.

Along the way he sailed on all three of the U.S. deep-sea submersibles, the Alvin, USS Turtle, and USS Sea Cliff, and was the first certified civilian co-pilot on the last. Mark pursued numerous outdoor sports until his last year.

Mark is survived by his wife, Barbara; their two children; and four grandchildren. The class sends condolences to them all.