W. Mark Hamilton

Memorial services celebrating the life of W. Mark Hamilton will be Saturday, Dec. 6, at 1:30 p.m. at St. Philip's Episcopal Church, 106 E. Crawford St., Palestine. Interment will be private. Instead of flowers, the family suggests contributions to a hospice in your area.Mr. Hamilton, 60, of Bend, Oregon, died Nov. 18 of a stroke at HospiceCenter Bend. He was a native of Palestine; he also had lived in Breckenridge, Colorado, and for about 12 years in Austin before moving to Bend in August. He attended Palestine public schools, graduated from Schreiner Institute in Kerrville and attended Southern Methodist University. He was a self-taught computer programmer and software developer, and worked as chief developer for www.titleX.com and as team developer for www.oginfo.com LLC. He also was a contract programmer for Safesite records management company and had done programming for other firms including Whit Hanks Antiques, Austin.He was a son of the late Lester Hamilton, former publisher and co-owner of the Palestine Herald-Press, and a grandson and great-nephew of the paper's founders. In Palestine, Mark Hamilton had worked for the NASA Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility and managed three family businesses, Hamilton Hardware, The Roundhouse package store and Old Town Antique Mall. He belonged to Beaver-Catfish Hunting and Fishing Club, Tennessee Colony.Science was a lifelong study for Mr. Hamilton, whose interests ranged from astronomy to automobiles, from hiking to beekeeping. He and the late Dr. Dan Rex of the balloon base together built an observatory later donated to Texas A and M University. In Austin Mr. Hamilton rowed at the Texas Rowing Center; he had served on the Breckenridge Ski Patrol. In Oregon, he climbed mountains. He enjoyed music, from classical to Gilbert and Sullivan.Mr. Hamilton is survived by his daughter, Angela Ceris Hamilton, a graduate student at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; his mother, Frances E. Hamilton of Norris, Tenn.; his sister, Frances Hamilton Oates of Norris; and his brother, Lee E. Hamilton of Houston.