We miss you Marcus.



Nov 15, 2007

It's been a sad week as we say goodbye and "next time" to our good friend Marcus Dressel, who left us on November 7, 2007 following a dignified fight with cancer. Marcus was the kind of guy that didn't just "stop to smell the flowers", as they say; he would pull out his Canon SLR with its paparazzo lens and take a hundred photos of them in macro, photoshop them and put them up online. He had an eye for details that we all pass by, and the calm to stop and enjoy them. He was the kind of person that would call you up just to tell you about something funny he'd seen on TV or in a movie. We'll remember the way that he didn't just tell stories, he narrated them, including the one of his "unique" first experience as a midwife [2008: This video has now been viewed 41,000+ times].

His departure from this world is just such a tremendous loss.

For those of you attending the memorial on Saturday, Carolynn will be collecting cards and photos in a "memory box" to share with his family and daughter Katelyn.

UPDATE: I learned at the service that Marcus had 3 (three!) separate Bachelor's degrees (I thought he had two) - in psychology, geography and education, as well as a diploma in criminology. It has been amazing to see the outpouring of comments about how respected he was as a teacher in New West. We always suspected he was good at his vocation, but the many comments from students about him have given ample support to his sister Barb's point: one of the greatest tragedies of Marcus' passing is the loss of a rare and true mentor to students (here is but one example).

We've had a few inquiries from people who would still like to contribute to the memory box. I'm sure Kristina would still welcome contributions.

It's fitting that Marcus would leave an online presence:

Here is a great slide show of Marcus.
Here are some memories in the guest book on remembering.ca.
Here is the thread about him on Takethepiss.com.
Here is a link to the 1,172 images that Marcus ("keeper") took on the soccer pitch. (He posted 5,532 times on the takethepiss bulletin board, or 2.75 posts a day!, which I guess indicates how passionate he was about soccer and how prominent he was in the local community). Somewhere out there is a BC Lottery scratch n'win with his soccer photo on it (it was a great shot and they called him up and asked to use it), but I can't seem to find it anywhere...
See also the links at right to his blog and Katelyn's web-page.