Mark G. Ratledge

1976 - 2012

Mark G. Ratledge
March 2, 1976 - February 29, 2012

Shortly after Mark's birth in Placerville, CA,in 1976, he and his family moved to the Harrison Gulch Ranger Station in Platina, CA. In 1978 his family moved to Redding where Mark spent his childhood. He attended Juniper School, Sequoia Middle School and graduated from Shasta High. After high school he went to work for Wolfgang International where he developed his strong affection for the Volkswagen automobile. As a step forward, Mark accepted a position with America's Tires in Sacramento. He did well there but soon tired of the big city rush and managed a transfer to the Redding tire store.

Once back in Redding he honed his skills at restoring VW beetles, bugs and buses. After his return to Redding, and influenced by his Redding Firefighter friend Don Borden, Mark decided to pursue a career as a firefighter and work toward a degree in Fire Sciences through Shasta College where he also successfully completed the Fire Academy. During this time Mark served as both a volunteer and temporary firefighter with the Redding and Cottonwood Fire Departments and the US Forest Service at Harrison Gulch. He was appointed as Fire Captain with the Cottonwood Fire Department in 2008 and gladly took on the role of Training Officer as safety was one of his highest job priorities.

Mark thoroughly enjoyed the outdoors and animals and spent happy times with his constant best friend Tigger who he sadly but happily replaced with Roxie. Along the way he adopted Ben the cat and most recently goats and chickens at his Cottonwood home. In passing Mark leaves behind his one year old daughter Sophia and her mother and his future wife Jennifer Hobbs, Jennifer's children Hannah Jasperse and Conner Hobbs, with whom he had already developed a fatherly bond, and their grandmother Sherry Short and their large extended family. Mark also leaves his mother Maria Closa of Redding along with a large extended maternal family in Barcelona, Spain, to include his 89 year old grandmother with whom he shares a March 2nd birth date; his sister Susana of Stockton, his father and stepmother Jack and Candace Ratledge, grandmother Elizabeth Slater of Redding and the extended Ratledge family in Tennessee. In passing Mark leaves a large family of friends from where ever he was and comrades-in-arms in the firefighting community, all of whom are too numerous to name.

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