Bishop Charles Mark Openshaw II

1971 - 2015

Bishop Charles Mark Openshaw II, "Mark," died on June 12, 2015 at his family's farm near Huggins, Missouri in a light airplane accident. Mark resided with his family in Provo, Utah.
Born on August 7, 1971, he grew up in Peoria, Arizona. He came to Utah to attend Brigham Young University where he graduated and where he met Amy Foster of Laguna Hills, California. They were married in 1994, and died together along with Tanner and Ellie, two of their five children. Five-year-old Max survived the crash. Sons Porter (serving an LDS mission in the South Pacific) and Zane (on a high school trip in Germany) were abroad at the time of the accident.
Mark was an entrepreneur and co-founder of Aircom, a Utah based Technology Company. He was an active force for education reform in his capacity as a member of Utah's State Board of Education, and was the much loved and admired sitting bishop of his LDS Provo Edgemont 8th Ward.
Among his many avocations, his primary interest was being Amy's husband and raising his children who came to know and practice his principles for successful living. He was often thinking about what "would be good for his boys."
Mark was a highly religious man. Like his father before him, he served as a 19-year-old missionary in the southern hemisphere. His beliefs were brought into fine focus in New Zealand when he and his companion, Elder David Justin Weir, were hit on their bicycles by a high speed hit and run driver, killing his companion and nearly killing him. After weeks in the hospital, he was determined to stay to complete his two year assignment which took him to the Cook Islands where he lived in primitive circumstances serving a humble people he went on to love all of his life.
His religious observance was outward and was centered in the words, "love one another." He was not so interested in telling you to fix your life as he was interested in fixing everything else. When always and forever and to anyone in earshot he asked, "What can I do for you?" it was not a rhetorical pleasantry, but an exploration. If you did not find a specific response, he usually would-by doing something like rolling your trash bins to the curb after you thought he had left.
Mark's warm, personable manner reached out to an impressive range of people who enjoyed his company and were blessed by his service. If something needed to be done, he and or his sons were never too far away.
He loved his country, because he had seen the world and had become convinced that American organizing principles were the best way for anyone to shape a quality life. He knew these principles were vulnerable and would often defend them even in casual conversation.
Mark Openshaw, like Amy, was a rough and tumble force of personality who flew airplanes and rode motorcycles and read much and served always. He is much loved.
He is survived by sons, Porter (19), Zane (17), and Max (5); parents, Charles Mark "Doc" and Linda Kay Winsor Openshaw (Huggins, MO); siblings, Carla Openshaw Ellis (Rocklin, CA), Ginger Allison Openshaw Betley (Mt. Carmel, TN), Walter Owen "Charlie" Openshaw II (Provo, UT), and a large extended family of in-laws, aunts and uncles, cousins, and might-as-well-be family members.
A special Posthumous Court of Honor in Tanner's honor will be held at 6:00 p.m., Sunday, June 21, at the Edgemont 8th Ward Cultural Hall, 3050 North Mojave Lane, Provo, Utah. All are invited.
Funeral services will be held at 11:00 a.m., Monday, June 22, 2015 at the Edgemont South Stake Center, 2950 North 350 East, Provo, Utah. Friends may call at the church from 9:30-10:45 a.m. prior to services. Interment will be in East Lawn Memorial Hills. Condolences may be extended to the family at www.bergmortuary.com.
In lieu of flowers, donations in their honor may be made to the Ronald McDonald House, Primary Children's Hospital, or Mercy Hospital in Springfield, MO.