Mark Peter Musselman
A. Obituary and
condolence cards
Mark Peter Musselman, beloved son of Mary Claire Musselman
and John Joseph Musselman, Jr., died May 14th 2007 at the UCLA Medical
Center in Los Angeles California.
Mark died from injuries sustained when he was struck by a car while walking
across the street in his Los Angeles
neighborhood and he donated all of his organs so that others might live. Mark
was 40 years old.
Mark is the sixth of seven children. Born October 21st
1966 in Rockville Centre, Long Island, New York, Mark attended K-12 public schools in New Jersey and Michigan.
Mark was then the third generation of his family to graduate from Hamilton College in Clinton, New York.
At Hamilton Mark earned a B.A. with a major in English and also gained a
fluency in Spanish. After college Mark was a paralegal at Cravath,
Swaine & Moore in New York
and was graduated from The John Marshall Law
School in Chicago, Illinois, earning a J.D. After law school
Mark worked in private practice and was a Federal Probation Officer before
turning to teaching. Mark was recently graduated from Pepperdine
University Graduate School of Education and Psychology in Malibu,
California, with an M.A. and was teaching
junior high school students English language and literature at the Trinity Lutheran Church middle
school in Hawthorne, California.
Mark was a loving father to his daughter, Isabel, and often
boasted proudly to his brothers and sisters about Isabel′s
ability to speak many languages even though she was only six. Isabel no doubt
got some of Mark′s ability with languages, as
Mark was a talented writer and eloquent speaker with a quick wit. Mark was also
a dedicated teacher. Shortly before his death he told his family that a
television news station in Los Angeles
was planning to film his junior high class to tape a creative exercise he had
developed for his students.
Mark is survived by his daughter Isabel Musselman and her
mother Heather Litman, of Los Angeles, California; by
his parents John Joseph Musselman and Mary Claire Musselman of Scottsdale,
Arizona and Knobby Knoll, New York; his sister Elizabeth Ann Musselman and her
sons Stephen Laycock, Matthew Laycock,
and John Carl Laycock, of Taos, New Mexico; his
brother Thomas Edward Musselman of Redondo Beach, California; his brother Jack
Green Musselman, his wife Elizabeth Green Musselman and their son Liam Green
Musselman of Austin, Texas; his twin brother Francis Paul Musselman of
Baltimore, Maryland; and his brother Stephen Joseph Musselman, his wife Aileen
Slocum Musselman and their children Maryellyn
Elizabeth Musselman, Luke O′ Brien Musselman, and Smith Patrick
Musselman, of West Friendship, Maryland. Mark was predeceased by his infant
sister, Jo Ellen Musselman.
Mark′s brothers and sisters
ask those who knew him to send a card to his daughter Isabel that includes a
story celebrating Mark′s life with us and a
picture of him, too, and to send another card to Heather. (And Jack, too, would
like snail mail or e-mail stories sent to jackgm@stedwards.edu
for a scrapbook he'll create to give to Isabel, when she's older, to know how
much his family and friends love Mark.). Those condolence cards and stories can
be sent to:
Isabel Musselman and Heather Litman
5009 Showboat Place Culver City CA 90230-4468;
John and Mary Musselman 11905 North 83rd Place Scottsdale AZ
85260-5682 (from September to May) or John and Mary Musselman 12863 Knobby
Knoll Road Sackets Harbor NY 13685-3109 (from May to September) (e-mail jmussel1
at hotmail dot com); Betsy Musselman and Stephen Laycock,
Matthew Laycock and John Carl Laycock
1035 Calle Palomita Taos NM
87571-4635 (e-mail betsymusselman at gmail dot com); Tom Musselman 723 Avenue C Redondo Beach CA
90277-4842 (e-mail musselmanT at aol
dot com); Jack, Elizabeth and Liam Green Musselman 1402 Northridge Drive Austin
TX 78723-1825 (and e-mail jackgm@stedwards.edu
with stories about Mark for a scrapbook for Isabel); Fran Musselman, 3670 Glendon Avenue #309, Los Angeles CA, 90034-6265 (knobbyknoll at hotmail dot com); Steve Musselman, Aileen
Musselman, Maryellyn, Luke and Smith Musselman 3163 Danmark Drive West Friendship MD 21794-9713 (e-mail stephenmusselman at netzero dot net).
B. Funeral and
memorial (including driving and airport information)
Mark′s parents, brothers and
sister plan a Catholic Funeral Liturgy officiated by Father Doug Comstock at
St. Andrew Roman Catholic Church (110
East Main Street, Sackets
Harbor, NY 13685
(315) 646-3341) at 11:00AM to 12:00PM EST on July 7th 2007. We also
plan a memorial service after the funeral at the Musselman cottages, 12863 Knobby Knoll Road Sackets Harbor NY 13685-3109, where friends and family
can eat, tell stories and celebrate Mark’s life.
For those staying the night your best bet might be Watertown, thirty minutes by car from Sackets Harbor
and Knobby Knoll, and not Sackets
Harbor itself, as a
wedding in Sackets that weekend may well make it hard to find a room there on
July 7th. Steve has reserved rooms at the new Watertown
Holiday Inn Express at 1290
Arsenal Street, phone 315-779-1234, at about $120-160 a night. Ask for the Musselman Block by June 15th
and after that date those rooms will be released to the public and only
available on a first-come, first-served basis.
(There is plenty of room at the Watertown Holiday Inn
Express for everyone. However, if you call the Watertown Holiday Inn after June
15th and they’ve given the rooms to others then clicking
here gets you a list of several Watertown hotels. For folks who want to try to stay in Sackets Harbor there is the Candlelight B&B and the Sackets Harbor B&B.
Clicking here
gives you a list of Sackets B&Bs. By clicking
here you get the Sackets Harbor Visitors’ Guide. On page five of that
Visitors’ Guide document you’ll find phone numbers of hotels, B&Bs and
restaurants in Sackets Harbor, while on page 13 of that Visitors’ Guide you’ll
get a driving map of the Sackets Harbor area with directions to Interstate 81.)
For those driving to Watertown
it is about 1.5 hours north of Syracuse on I-81
and about 5.5 hours north of New York
City. About an
hour on I-81 north of Syracuse
you’ll see the exit for Arsenal
Street and Route 3. (Those in Watertown hotels will take Arsenal Street west out of town toward
Sackets and Arsenal becomes Route 3.) Take this exit off I-81 and go left to
head west. About 15 minutes on Route 3 and you’ll see signs for Sackets Harbor,
and at the sign taking the right fork for about five or ten minutes takes you
into Sackets Harbor toward the Church, B&Bs, etc. If you miss this turn
about another five minutes on Route 3 takes you to an intersection with an ice
cream stand on the left and a general store and gas station on your right. If
you turn right here this road takes you into Sackets Harbor,
too. But if you are headed to the Musselman cottages from Watertown you’ll stay on Route 3 past the
sign to Sackets and past the general store for about another five minutes.
Then, on your left you’ll see the Bedford Creek Golf Course and on your right
an old red barn and a Knobby Knoll sign. Across the street from the golf course
look for the red barn and take a right on the road just before the barn. Park in the area next to the red barn and on the Knobby Knoll lawn
across the street from the barn. Cars will shuttle you from this area
down Knobby Knoll to the Musselman cottages. Our phone number at the Knoll is
315-646-3487. (You can get driving
directions from Syracuse and Albany
to Watertown and Sackets Harbor
from Mapquest,
too.)
The best large airport to use is Syracuse Hancock International Airport. Albany International Airport, just
about 3.5 hours from Watertown, is the next
closest airport and Southwest Airlines does fly to Albany. (You might ask your travel agent
about a bereavement fare. They may need three pieces of information to honor
that request: viz., the July 7th 2007 date of the funeral, the
funeral’s location at St. Andrew Roman Catholic Church 110 East Main Street, Sackets Harbor, NY 13685 (315)
646-3341 and the name of the Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park and
Mortuary, 1218 Glendon Avenue, Los Angeles CA, 90024,
(310) 474-1569. You may have to wait until May 27 or a bit later, however, for
Pierce Brothers to verify that they are, in fact, the mortuary of record.)
C. Contributing to
Mark’s memorial fund
Mark’s brothers and sisters are collecting and will donate
resources to advance his commitment to K-12 children and teenagers. Such projects
will very likely include (but are not limited to) supporting Mark’s students at
Trinity Lutheran Church middle school with scholarships, books, etc. and adding
new playground equipment at Knobby Knoll where Mark and his siblings played as
children. To help advance Mark’s commitment to children and teenagers mail a
contribution to E. Musselman, 1008 Paseo del Pueblo
Sur 264, Taos NM, 87571, make it payable to “Leverick
and Musselman, LLC, trust account” and write somewhere on the face of that
contribution “for Mark Musselman Memorial Fund.” Please include a return
address so Jack may write you a thank you note, too, for honoring Mark and his
family in this way. Thank you very much.
http://markpetermusselman.org/
Last Updated: June 02
2007
jackgm at stedwards dot edu