Born March 1, 1951, in Flushing, New York, Mark Burkholz of West Windsor, Vermont and Hawthorne Village, Rumney, New Hampshire passed away after a short illness on May 11, 2022. Mark met his wife, Sheara Friend, in 1980 in New York City. They were married in 1983 in her family's backyard to Klezmer music and they went on to live a full life as best friends and as the parents of their beloved sons, Ben and Noah. A devoted father, Mark nurtured a love for nature and adventure in Ben and Noah, hiking with them as babies on his back, swimming with dolphins, and kayaking and scuba diving around the world. After graduating from City College in New York, teaching briefly in NYC public schools, obtaining a Master's degree in mathematics and computer science from the Courant Center at NYU, and a brief stint at Bell Labs, Mark realized his heart was in teaching. In 1990 he joined the faculty at Lawrence Academy in Groton, Massachusetts where he spent the next 31 years. When Mark arrived at Lawrence the school had no computers. As its first Director of Information Technology, he built the school's technology infrastructure and taught math and AP computer science classes throughout his teaching career. He was a beloved mentor to generations of students at Lawrence as a teacher and, together with Sheara, was a house parent and faculty guide on annual Winterim kayaking and rafting trips all over the world. Mark is survived by Sheara, Ben and Noah, his sister Sherry Burkholz and her partner Rosemary Iconis, sisters-in-law Deborah Friend and Lisa Friend and her husband Giuseppe Contaldo and their children Giulia and Daniel, brother-in-law David Friend, his children Sophie and Eliza, their mother Wendi Friend (m. Chuck Dubois) and Ninja and Mushin, two Bengal cats he loved. He was pre-deceased by his parents Jeanette and Harold Burkholz. Mark will be remembered for his compassion, generosity, and humor; as a student of history and avid reader of the New York Times; as a 5th degree Karate black belt and lifelong student of Zen meditation (before mindfulness was a thing); for his love of nature, St. John, Acadia, Attean and Stinson lakes; as a loving husband, father, uncle, brother and friend; and for the good values and music of the 60s, by which he lived his life. Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, May 18, 2022 at Kerem Shalom, 659 Elm Street, Concord, MA. All attendees are required to wear masks and be fully vaccinated/boosted. To view the service remotely via livestream, please access the following link on Wednesday at 11 am: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHqPmEXSPJY . Shiva will directly follow. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you consider a gift to Love City Strong , serving the community of St. John in disaster relief, or the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society . Arrangements are under the care of Dee Funeral Home & Cremation Service of Concord, MA.