Mark Heinzig:
CLASS OF 1984
Curtis High SchoolClass of 1984
University place, WA
University of Washington - Civil EngineeringClass of 1989
Seattle, WA
Mark's Story
Hello from Mark:
Wow! Already 25 years since Curtis HS graduation in 1984; about 12-13 years since my last re-union. How swiftly the years pass by, eh? Glad I've found this web site, hope to re-acquaint w/classmates.
My wife Carol & I currently live in Mill Creek, WA, with our (2) little boys, Justin (7) & Christian (5). We own & manage a small consulting business, Heinzig Enterprises, Inc.; we provide civil-structural engineering, project management, and Business IT consulting.
For those, interested, here's a bit of my wife & I's background, life story & pursuits:
I grew up in Liberia, West Africa, son of a jungle missionary pilot & teacher, & 4 sublings. We lived in the remote jungles, and developed a largely self sustaining missionstation with a leprosy center, orphanage, clinic, K-12school & (quasi) bible college. was home-schooled, but spent most of my time either playing soccer, helping my dad in the aircraft hanger, or hunting, fishing, & "gardening" with natives....essentially 'slash and burn." Also, survived a bloody military coup, which toppled a corrupt Democratic government, led to (14) years of bloody civil war. (For more detail on Libeia, see end of my 'story'.)
Aside from living overseas, my family & I lived in Alberta (CA), Brooklynn (NY); Helena (MO) and Lakeland (FL) before we settled in University Place WA, where I attended Curtis HS 1982-1984. After HS, I earned a BS civil engineering from U.W. (1989), an MBA from Seattle University (2003, and certificates in e-commerce, UML/O.O.P & XML technologies Am am currently, slowly working towards a PMP certificate, & risk management studies.
My (14) year marriage to Carol, my beloved friend, has been the greatest joy & challenge of my life, thus far. Carol is very disciplined, kind & loyal; and she's pretty humble. However, she's strong willed & prety 'rigid' in her convictions, probably a courtesy of growing up w/ (12) siblings in a Catholic household, in a tough/low income Seattle neighborhood. I'd desribe our life together as fun, passionate & opinionated. Our favorite memories center around family fellowship & working towards common goals. Through the years, we've come to learn that maintianing a successful marriage requires attending to the physical, emotional & spiritual aspects of our relationship, and anchoring our relationship with shared Christian values & beliefs. Most importantly, we've learned that we're most happy when we're in pursuit of a shared goal, sharing humor and able to forgive one another...rather than dwelling on the hurts of the past, whether real, or perceived. Hum, that the same things we all learned in kindergarten, the playground, or Sunday School, eh?
Employment-wise, over the last 25-28 years, I've worked a variety of jobs, including construction laborer, busboy, short-order cook, engineer aid/draftsman, junior software programmer, survey assistant (rod man), design & project engineer, software IT PM, MBA analyst for a private VC, and currently, wear three hats: one, as a principal consultant; two, as a PM; and three, as a small business owner. Looking back, I can see that I learned something valuable from each job, which proved helpful in my career, and current business. Also, though ancillary, I learned that (some, if not all) VCs are indeed "vulture capitalists"; and make corrupt politicians, lawyers & used car salesmen seem amateur by comparision.
For family recreation, we enjoys little league sports, family canoe'ing, fly fishing & camping trips. My boys & I also put in avegetable & flower garden each year. And, at nights, we like to wrestle, play chess or play board games (after homework.) We usually end our evenings with (1) adventure story, a bible story & prayers. My opinion, nothing more satisfying than getting unsolicited hugs & kisses from your children, except, maybe, from your lover.
Currently, my little boys & I are taking piano lessons together. My piano teacher is introducing me to the rudiments of music theory & classical music, though I prefer southern gospel, jazz & 'elevator' music. This week, I'm struggling through Bach's "Minuet in G major", and working on Kunz's Short Canons excercises, essentially excercises to learn polyphonic music. My boys are working on a duet together, 'Silent Night', for our upcoming Christmas program. Lots of fun to watch them performing together.
Our family periodically vacations in Hawaii, Canada & California. While my wife & boys like trips to Disneyland, I much prefer vacations in Hawaii. My favorite was sailing around the Hawaii Islands in a 40 ft Fuji sailboat with Carol & 2 friends. We sailed through the narrow Halaekala straits by moonlight. Later, that night, we watched dolphins pen a school of fish together for dinner. The fishball boiled and shimmered in the moonlight, fenced in by the shadows of dolphins encircling around, and the periodic stab of a dolphin entering into the baitball. ALso, enjoyed a brief underwater ride on the back of a 3 ft large sea-turtle. It was incredible, being silently pulled along, about about 25 ft below the surface, in a dark blue, semi-round reef with tropical fish swimming nearby. Though, my wife was very irritated; said, it wasn't intelligent or ethical to touch sea-creatures. Maybe, she's right..don't know.
Our family currently attends N.C.Presbyterian church, where I sing tenor in choir & we participate in missions & children ministry activities, such as 'pancake' fund raising events, youth choir and Christmas programs. We also (periodically) particpate w/ non-profit organizations, in local & overseas projects. Typically, we look for projects our boys can participate in with us, since we want to instill in them the importance of compasion, volunteerism & respecting other cultures. Currently, we're working (with others) on the design & funding of a small (50-70) child orphanage, and we recently partipated in the funding/install of a water supply system for an African village in upper Togo. We have observed that folks & orphans, the world over, are the same, they have beautiful smiles & kind hearts, they have dreams & needs like us, and somethimes they just need a helping hand to get through challenges in life. If you're interested, contact me. Trust me, we've gained so much more than we've ever given. Funny, how that works out, when you focus on others, eh?
I'm no longer involved in organized sports, due to a spinal/back injury, I try to keep myself fit by watching my diet, working in the yard and periodic gym excercise; not always successful. But, I do admire my wife, she has a great diet, and goes to the gym 5x-6x a week; she looks great! I also enjoy reading military history, economics & PM, and am a amateur photographer.
Periodically, old classmates inquire about what 'wild & crazy' things I've done since HS. I suspect, what they'll really wondering is if "Heinzig" is still conservative or not? While college, marriage & parenting has certainly taught me to be more open-minded & flexible, I still hold to my childhood Christian faith. Stated philosophically,, I'm not a Deist, a cultural relativists or a materialist. And beyond that, were I to document the foolish of youth, it suspect it would take a volume or two to fill, so I'll pass on that. But, I will share a couple of stories, involving my favorite part-times hobby, residential design & construction.
Between 1987-1993 I designed & built myself an 1700 sf timber residence in Graham, WA, part-time, with periodic help from my dad & a couple of college friends. I financed the building by clearing & harvesting 50 + trees from the property. Felt like Paul Bunyan, but almost killed myself.... when I got my chainsaw hinged in a huge falling tree. I didn't want to let go of the chainsaw, even though the tree was falling towards me. I sidestepped, as the tree slammed into the ground beside me. Then, two days later, I accidentily got (3-4) trees 'hinged' together in a standing cluster....like a 'T-pee'. Very stressful, climing trees to set cables, then, winching it apart, until all trees snapped/crashed to the ground. ...Expand for more
I jumped behind a tree, a split second before a falling tree hit the upright tree, and slid to the ground with a thud. A few weeks later, I dug most of the residence's foundation system with a shovel. It saved me the cost of renting a backhoe & concrete form boards, but proved too labor intensive. Another time, a gust of wind knocked me off my feet, while I carry a 4'x8' sheet of PW on a steep sloped (gambrel) roof. The drop to the ground was almost 20 ft, but I avoided the fall hanging onto the roof dormer's facia board. Ah, the folly of youth!
I also recollect Carol & I remodeling a 110 year old Vitorian residence in Capital Hill in 1995, while we both worked FT as engineers, and prepared for our upcoming wedding. Having to pay for our wedding, honeymoon & house construction, without any help or loans, I opted to live in the demolished, unheated building during winter (to save rent). I kept warm by sleeping in thermal underwear, a ski suit & mask, while keeping a 150 watt light bulb on, night....no joke! I recollect that my first 'offical' arguement with Carol was over my purchase of a 2500 watt heater to keep warm at night. She felt it wasn't necessary, since she rationalized the heater couldn't possibly heat the whole un-insulated bedroom space, in winter. She further retorted that she'd grown up in a small 3 bedroom home in Seattle, with 12 siblings, with no gas or electric heater, only a fire stove that went out each winter night, and woke up to frost on the "inside" of the windows each winter morning. I told her, that's fine for you, but I prefer the tropics of Africa. After she left, I turned the heater back on, and thought to myself, man...is she ever tough!
Anyway, with no utilities, water or cloths closet in the building, I kept my clothes hanging in my car, and used a locker in the YMCA for several months, to shower & shave. I recollect being so exhausted during that period that I once walked off the end of an 8 ft high scafolding, while installing mud on a 14' high coved ceiling.
Getting the house into 'move in' condition before our wedding was really tough. The night before my wedding, I was busy cutting & hanging the bedroom doors (until 4 am). Because of a 'noise curfew', I had to muffle the sound of the saw...so, I drapped a quilt over the sawhorse, flat door & my shoulders, held a flashlight in my mouth, held the framing square with my left hand, and cut the bottom off the oak doors with my right hand. Afterwards, I was so exhausted that night, I forgot to unplug the air-compressor next to my cot. About 5:30 am, the air in the tank bled down, and the air compressor 'kicked on'. It was so sudden & loud, I momentarily thought it was the trumpets sounding the Lord's second coming!! Anyway, I made it to my wedding, & fine honeymoon in Hawaii. Upon return, I carried my wife across the threshold to our new home!
My perspective, residental remodels are more costly & difficult than new construction, becuase iit requires greater craftmanship & budgeting for unforseen expenses. But, the ROI can be excellent...if you have a good neaghborhood, great curb side appeal, and focus on the finish details of the kitchen, bathroom & bedrooms, in that order.
Well, that's enough about my own life journey these last two decades. I'd like to hear about your life, and family, and interests. In the meantime, let me end this open letter by making a shortlist of insights I've learned over the last two decades, and identify a few issues that I'm concerned about:
1. Happiness is the progressive realization of a worthwhile dream or goal. But attainment of that goal, requires sacrifice, ie, applying the principal of delayed gratification.
2. A balanced lifestyle is important for one's physical, emotional & spiritual health, and for one's family, too.
3. Our lives & relationships would be far less stressful & more fulfilling when we followed the Golden Rule, rather than follow the gold, to rules.
4. The excercise of love, compassion & forgiveness are the truest expressions of religion, not judgement or legalism.
5. Most folks don't care about what you know, as much as they want to know how much you care.
6. There's truth to Voltaire's assessment that the "greatest good (on earth) is to cultivate our own garden". (Personally, I don't think he was advocating a self-centered life; rather, I think he was suggesting we ought to define/pursue & cultivate our own lives (in excellence),rather than live under religious or government dogma.)
7. While I'm a strong advocate of civil liberities, small government, fiscial conservatism & free enterprise in a open market economy, I'm alarmed at the deterioration of our education system, our nation's public & corporate imorality, & our nation's inability to live within a budget.
8. I'm concerned about our County's growing dependence on foreign oil, the Administration's prosecution on the War on terrorism, and encroachment of the Judicial branch into the Legislative branch.
9.I'm concerned about the growing chasm between the rich & poor in our country, and the large % of world resources that our Nation annually consumes.
10. I'm concerned about the social & economic challenges we'll be facing in the next 5-10 years, and the growing national debt we're leaving to our next American generation.
(I better stop there, otherwise I'll launch into a discussion on taxation, the liberial media, social justice, and need for grass-roots reform in education, government & business.)
In closing, I'd like to thank you for stopping by, to get an update on my activities these last two decades. Like you, my life is a 'work in progress', and we both have many miles to go. I wish you happiness & harmony in all (honerable) things you pursue. That is, I wish you success in your life pursuit of love, liberty & the support of your dreams, family & friends.
More importantly, I hope you contribute to a worthwhile goal greater than your self. If you take that step, you'll gain a greater sense of purpose in life, and make your life actions & friendship a treasured legacy for your family, friends & community, for years to come.
Well, that's all for now. Hope to see you folks at the Curtis HS 25 year re-union. And, in the meantime, do drop me a note. I'd like to hear from you, and, and I promise, I'll send a reply.
Kindly yours,
Mark (Heinzig
Elaboration on the 1980 Liberian coup:
The April 12, 1980, coup d'etat was led by indigenous Liberian Master Sergeant Samuel K. Doe (from the Krahn ethnic group), sparked by rice (food) riots & the underlying revolt of indigenous Liberians against one hundred and thirty-three years of Americo-Liberian political domination; ie,decendants of repatriated slaves from the USA. As per the USA State Dept, Samuel K. Doe executed President William R. Tolbert and several officials of his government, mostly of Americo-Liberian descent on a beach of Monrovia. (My dad was in the city, nearby, when that happend; he recognized the gravity of the situation, and need for our family to escape from the country, in the next few weeks.) Over the next few years, the Doe government began promoting members of Doe's Krahn ethnic group, who soon dominated political and military life in Liberia. This raised ethnic tension and caused frequent hostilities between the politically and militarily dominant Krahns and other (15)ethnic groups in the country. The bloody 'civil' war soon escalated into Doe's goverment vs insurgents, ethnic killings & maiming, kidnaping, widespread theft, use of child soldiers, ritual human sacrifice, and blood diamonds. The war eventually claimed the life of Doe by his rival, Charles Taylor, et al, & more than 200,000 other Liberians... and displaced a million others into refugee camps in neighboring countries. The civil war effectively ended with the October 11, 2005 presidential and legislative elections and the subsequent November 8, 2005 presidential run-off. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. She formed a government of technocrats drawn from among Liberia's ethnic groups and including members of the Liberian diaspora
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