Mark Lester Wegrzynski

Mark Lester Wegrzynski passed away on Sunday, April 21, 2024, in Oklahoma City, OK. He was 56 years old. Mark was born in Chicago, Illinois on August 19, 1967, to Lester and Frances (Bylinowski) Wegrzynski. He was a graduate of Hinsdale Central High School. He met his future wife Susan (Wittmer) in 1986 while attending Eastern Illinois University. In the spring of 1991 Mark earned a bachelor’s degree in finance from St. Louis University and later that year on October 26, he and Susan were married.  Mark’s career as a financial analyst led him and Susan to Oklahoma City in 1996. A year later his first child Samuel Henry was born, followed almost exactly 2 years later in 1999, by his twin daughters Abigail Frances and Kathryn Lorraine. Mark was the proudest papa of his 3 beautiful children who learned to appreciate and respect others by following his example.  Mark’s professional career in Oklahoma City included corporate management, business ownership, and most recently as a grants manager of the Office of Emergency Management for the state of Oklahoma. Mark’s dream job was to be a Forest Ranger; he loved and respected the outdoors, and it was where he was the happiest. He was an avid fly fisherman, spending many days on the Rio Santa Barbara outside of Taos, NM.  He was a bird watcher, a camper, a backcountry hiker, a wood carver, and a hunter of quail and pheasant, although rarely successful.   He grew orchids and filled his garden with native plants. He and his family spent weekends following the Santa Fe Trail or visiting obscure Civil War battlefields. He recently experienced the full totality eclipse in the woods near a lake in Arkansas and was deeply affected by the experience. He loved to cook and recently created a Dad Door Dash service, providing home-cooked meals to his children. When he wasn’t on the move, he enjoyed reading Cormac McCarthy, Wendell Berry and Ernest Hemingway, and listening to cool tunes with his friends.

Mark is survived by his wife and children, by his mother Frances, and by his siblings and their spouses, Myron (Jody) Wegrzynski and Margie (Kurt) Nebel; by his nieces and nephews Kurt (Tina) Nebel, Jennifer Nebel, Michelle Nebel and Andrew Wegrzynski; and by his brother-in-law and sisters-in-law Steve (Susan) Wittmer and Chris Wittmer. He is preceded in death by his father Lester Wegrzynski. His passing has affected the lives of so many others including his second family Mark and Ann Lynn Bonadeo and Joe Roberts, his colleagues at the Office of Emergency Management, and his buddies at Oklahoma State Department of Health. He will forever be known as the alpha to Maddie, Max, Ruby, Winston and Rosie. His love and attention will be missed by Tubby and Jinx, Pope and Theo, and Franklin and Poncho.

Visitation will be held from 5 pm to 7 pm on Friday, April 26 at Smith & Kernke Funeral Home, 1401 NW 23^rd St, Oklahoma City. On Saturday, April 27 at 10am a funeral Mass will be held at The Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, 3214 N Lake Ave, Oklahoma City followed by a luncheon provided by family and friends. Mark made the decision years ago to be cremated and requested he be laid to rest in the waters of the Rio Santa Barbara.

The family requests donations be made in memory of Mark to the Oklahoma Native Plant Society at oknativeplants.org or send to ONPS PO Box 14274, Tulsa OK 74159-1274.

Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.

― Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It and Other Stories