Michael Horn Tighe

Perhaps it was being the son of a foreign correspondent that gifted Mike Tighe with his adventurous spirit. He carved an interesting path through life Peace Corps volunteer, traveler, photographer, editor before finding his way into the marketing side of the nascent tech industry.Mike was born in Tokyo, Japan on Nov. 24, 1952 to Marian and Lawrence Tighe, a radio reporter who had broadcast the Japanese surrender from the USS Missouri and later covered the Korean War. The family returned to the United States when Mike was an infant and settled in southern California. After his parents divorced, Mike was raised by his mother in the north Orange County town of Fullerton. He remained a hometown boy throughout school, graduating from Fullerton High, Fullerton Junior College, and Cal State Fullerton, before striking out into the wider world. Armed with a communications degree, Mike served an internship at Petersen Publishing's Air Progress magazine before moving to another Petersen mag, Car Craft, where he rose to the managing editor's chair and made some lifelong friends along the way. In 1979, the wanderlust got him and Mike joined the Peace Corps. He was dispatched to Fiji, where he spent two years in that country's Ministry of Information and, more importantly, met his future wife Julie, another Peace Corps volunteer. Mike took a circuitous route home after his Peace Corps service, completing an around-the-world backpacking trip before finding himself back in southern California and, briefly, at Petersen. He and Julie had kept in touch while she completed her master's degree in St. Louis and they were soon reunited, this time for good. They married in 1984, in Malibu, and spent some time in Santa Monica before moving to Santa Cruz in 1987 with their infant son, Christopher. Another son, Shannon, came along after the move north. After a few years working at several of the early tech magazines, Mike moved to marketing communications and spent 17 years at Plantronics, a manufacturer of wireless headsets based in Santa Cruz, before retiring in 2017.Throughout it all, Mike combined his passion for travel with an interest (and talent) for photography. During sojourns to places as varied as Morocco, Vietnam, and Cuba, Mike compiled an impressive photo catalog which he meticulously rendered into entertaining slide shows of professional quality. Mike had other passions as well, mainly his family. But he also loved the ocean, which led him to volunteer as a guide at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Mike being Mike, he was soon training and mentoring new volunteers. He was a natural teacher, and broadened that side of himself by joining the Volunteer Center's Literacy Program as an English instructor. Mike was 71. He was preceded in death by his parents and half-siblings Richard, Janice, Judy, and Jerry. He is survived by his wife, Julie, and sons Christopher and Shannon.