Mark Mickel (Firefoxx)
Firefoxx – Mark Mickel – a man we have all loved and admired for so many years was in a car accident on October 11, 2006. He died instantly.
I got home Saturday and there was an answering machine message from his mother to please call. I did, and she told me what had happened.
Mark had completed school, and had just gotten a job. I believe it was a job in Frederick Maryland (although I am not certain of this). He and I last talked on October 6th and he mentioned they were eager to hire him. His mother told me he had gone back to the University to thank his professors and was leaving the School. I will post the report here.
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If it were not for that report I would expect Mark to pop on with his joking manner and tell us he was just joshing. I wish desperately it were so.
The last day we talked, we talked about the normal things. Jobs, women, flying, a little on technology. And I was setting up a website for his Alumni at the school. It was taking me so long to do – and he asked about it. I was busy at the time just didn’t think I had the time to take to talk with him. I hope I wasn’t short with him – I fear that I was. I saw Mark pop back online the day he died, I don’t think he was on long. But I was busy again and on invisible and didn’t say hello.
I wish I had.
Years ago when Mark & I founded VF. We wanted to make a squad that was better, not one better in skill but better in people. He had as much pride in all of you as anyone could. We all spent countless hours flying together, or just talking. Firefoxx was the type of man who took a sidewinder by friendly fire and kept flying the coop even though nobody could fault him for wanting to restart. He strove to create new challenges for us, and to be as best as he could be.
He was the type of man who you could talk to. For he cared for all of us, he rejoiced in our triumphs and was there to lean upon when times were tough. When he wanted to talk to people when times were good or bad for him – he often choose us.
His mom said he had often talked about me and the flying community he had here that meant so much to him. He left enough clues for his sister to track me down. Knowing I and all of us meant so much to Mark deeply touches me, it touches me beyond words. It also has really gotten to me. Mark & I were almost always in similar points in life. If he got that job in Maryland – that was also where I was going to move. We joked about a batch pad. One of the last things he said to me was he could sense many “beer nut” jokes in person were to come. I like to think that if we lived in the same city people would have thought we were brothers.
Mark & I were going to meet when I moved to Texas. The morning we were to get together his van was broken down and he just couldn’t locate a car. He was going to meet me dressed in a flight suit and a pilots helmet he picked up someplace. I never got to met my friend, never got to shake his hand. He was a part of me that can never be filled.
I miss my friend.
If anyone would like to send their sympathies to his parents, I think they would like that. His mom said that the School – Penn State – Altoona was going to put up a plaque in his honor. She said that no matter where he went he cut a wide path along with him, as everyone has such high respect for Mark. His mom said she was so very proud of him. He was someone I always looked up too.
To Firefoxx, I hope you are with peace my friend and know how much having you as a friend has meant to me, know how much of a difference you made in my life.
<S> my friend,
Mag
In loving memory.
Mark Mickel, Passed from this Earth on October 11, 2006.
