Changes in Latitudes

Reading departure signs in some big airport
Reminds me of the places I’ve been.
Visions of good times that brought so much pleasure
Makes me want to go back again.
If it suddenly ended tomorrow, 
I could some how adjust to the fall.
Good times and riches and son of a bitches, 
I’ve seen more than I can recall.

These changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes, 
Nothing remains quite the same.
Through all of the islands and all of the highlands, 
If we couldn’t laugh we would all go insane.

Dad passed peacefully in his sleep early this morning. We’ll share details about his service when we have them.

___

Mark Wallace Dahl, 62, a longtime resident of Beaverton, died March 7. He had cancer.

Born June 3, 1954, at West Seattle Hospital to Bernt and Vivian Dahl, he was a lifelong resident of the Pacific Northwest. After growing up in Everett and Spokane, Wash., he graduated from Spokane Community College with a degree in electronics technology. He married Judy Ann Handegard on July 10, 1976, in Spokane.

The newlyweds briefly lived in Sunnyvale, Calif., as Mark built missiles for Lockheed Martin. He took an engineering job at Tektronix and the couple settled in Beaverton, where they began their lifelong endeavor to build a family and a home.

Over the next decades, he and Judy had three children and hammered together a house that remains under their perpetual construction.

An engineer through and through, he was fascinated with the way things work, often dragging his kids on tours of dams and bringing home spare electronics parts to putter around with in the garage. Friends called him MacGyver for his ingenuity to fix anything, anywhere.

Mark volunteered in many capacities at St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Beaverton, particularly with Boy Scout Troop 124, for which he was the webmaster. He was a representative of Lutheran Men in Mission.

He loved road trips around the West, seeking out back roads and markers of bygone days. His favorite way to travel, though, was on a bicycle. He participated in Cycle Oregon, a weeklong tour of the state, for 26 years, and would say of every small town in Oregon: “I’ve been there on my bike.”

Survivors include his parents and younger brother Steve in Clifton, Texas; his wife, Judy; children Tracy Dahl and Keith Knipling of Alexandria, Va., Katie and Scott Dai of San Leandro, Calif., and Peder and Lucy Dahl of Hood River, Ore.; grandchildren Simon and Cecily Dai; and countless friends.

Memorial donations can be made to the Cycle Oregon Fund at the Oregon Community Foundation.