SanJoaquinSooner
6/30/2012, 12:51 PM
I know here we have lots of Arizonans who are transplanted Okies - well, as least we used to - back when the South Oval had lots of traffic before the zombies ate many of our posters ....
So I thought I'd share a story about a man with both Arizona and Oklahoma connections.
I went to high school with Mark Anderson. If there ever was a guy I envyed, it was Mark. He seemingly had everything. The guy was a four-time Oklahoma state champion diver. He was named high school All-American diver as well. The guy was super smart too. He made A's in all the tough college-prep classes and went to college at Princeton. The teachers all adored him - he was smart and witty in class, and always seemed to say the right thing in any given situation.
Not only that, he was a good-looking guy and dated the girl who was named "Best Looking Female" of the Senior class, a girl I had cherished since 7th grade.
He graduated from Princeton, with a major in psychology, and eventually gave stand-up comedy a shot. As witty as he was, he didn't become a successful comedian, BUT, he did get into the ownership side of the comedy business, and owned several Improv comedy clubs over the course of his career - most recently, one in Wash DC and one in Tempe AZ.
Well, he had some business problems with his Tempe Improv, with a competitor hiring his comedians away from him and he had to close the business. Mark told his family he was leaving to seek financial advice in Dallas and would not be bringing a cellphone for fear someone was tracking him. Mark said he was having issues with his business partners.
His family reported him missing back in May of this year. And then in early June, he was found dead in an Arizona hotel. The articles on this hint at Mark having mental issues that were exacerbated by stress, but I'm not sure of the official ruling of the cause of death.
http://www.azcentral.com/community/tempe/articles/2012/06/06/20120606tempe-improv-owner-found-dead-abrk.html
So I thought I'd share a story about a man with both Arizona and Oklahoma connections.
I went to high school with Mark Anderson. If there ever was a guy I envyed, it was Mark. He seemingly had everything. The guy was a four-time Oklahoma state champion diver. He was named high school All-American diver as well. The guy was super smart too. He made A's in all the tough college-prep classes and went to college at Princeton. The teachers all adored him - he was smart and witty in class, and always seemed to say the right thing in any given situation.
Not only that, he was a good-looking guy and dated the girl who was named "Best Looking Female" of the Senior class, a girl I had cherished since 7th grade.
He graduated from Princeton, with a major in psychology, and eventually gave stand-up comedy a shot. As witty as he was, he didn't become a successful comedian, BUT, he did get into the ownership side of the comedy business, and owned several Improv comedy clubs over the course of his career - most recently, one in Wash DC and one in Tempe AZ.
Well, he had some business problems with his Tempe Improv, with a competitor hiring his comedians away from him and he had to close the business. Mark told his family he was leaving to seek financial advice in Dallas and would not be bringing a cellphone for fear someone was tracking him. Mark said he was having issues with his business partners.
His family reported him missing back in May of this year. And then in early June, he was found dead in an Arizona hotel. The articles on this hint at Mark having mental issues that were exacerbated by stress, but I'm not sure of the official ruling of the cause of death.
http://www.azcentral.com/community/tempe/articles/2012/06/06/20120606tempe-improv-owner-found-dead-abrk.html