Mark F. Weiner

This was a real shock to me! I'd known Mark from our days at American University, and how his mother Francis and his father 'Pug" came to visit me in Atlanta. We all enjoyed each others company, and my mother and father were the perfect hosts. My family lived in a very swanky apartment on Peachtree Rd ( more like a 5th Avenue apartment) . Mark was always by my side, and even entertained me at their home in Wayne, New Jersey. Even to this day though am 70 years old and with children. I will never forget Mark. He will be missed!

Worked with Mark when I joined PublicRelay. He went out of his way to welcome me and offered his expertise to help get me up to speed quickly. Grateful for all he has done for the PR & communications profession and for me personally.

Mark was at one time a neighbor in Fairfield, CT. He was a fine man and a very good Dad. May he rest in peace.

I woke up this morning to read on FB that my longtime friend Mark Weiner passed yesterday in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.

After all the passings of the past 4 years, one half-expects to become numb to it or at least numb-er. But that´s not so.

Mark was one of those guys that stood as a beacon to many, including me, of the sort of person they - and I - wanted to be like. For me, he was a lot like an older brother.

In Death, as in Life, there is no higher compliment that can be paid to a man or woman than "she or he was a person I wanted to be like."

All of our striving burns up in the end, but the essence of who we´ve been and who we really are is the thing that lives on in the hearts and memories of those who knew us, liked us, or maybe didn´t.

My last conversation with Mark was November 26. It seems that his heart attack may have been very soon thereafter. He had been weakened by pneumonia and persistent illness since the summer but things were looking up.

We talked a little about Proof but mostly about our sons. Our conversation was about 40 minutes of the best possible repartee between old friends, and I´m so thankful that if it had to be my last with Mark, that was it.

I´m 58. I think I have many years left; I hope so. But I think one of the hardest times in a man or woman´s life is when they´ve lost key people to death, yet they themselves are still here. We must continue to live, not only for ourselves but for others, including the honor and memory of our departed loved ones.

It is during this time of loss that it hits home that someday we who are so vibrantly present now will not be anymore.

In the past five years I´ve lost 31 - now 32 - family and friends to many causes. I still go to places I associate very specifically with them as part of work travel or whatever. I see the world continuing to function just as it did, but without them. And I know that one day that´s the way it will be for me.

That realization has upended my definition of achievement.

I share this with you in case any of it resonates with you. It does not have to, btw. But it might.

Today I use an old Jesuit approach to calibrating the focus of my time. It is very effective.

Let´s say that I have 28 years left. I see it as 28 summers, 28 Christmases, 28 Valentines Days, etc. I want to see more places, spend more time with more people, do more things that really matter. It´s not about seeking to be remembered as much as wanting what I have to count. To mean something, to bless people in ways that neither they nor I was expecting.

Or as Mark said to me earlier this year, "After years of intentionality, Serendipity is my friend."

We loved you Mark. I loved you very much.

Go in peace, my brother.