Mark David Tompkins, 64, went home to be with Jesus on March 5, 2021 in Overland Park, KS.
He was born November 20, 1956 in Heidelberg, Germany, where Mark’s Dad was stationed in the Army. Mark grew up in Boxboro, Massachusetts. He received bachelor’s degrees in Electrical Engineering and in Applied Physics from Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston, MA.
On June 3, 1980, Mark was married to Sharon Dow. They had two daughters, Erin and Rachael. Mark worked as an engineer at Puritan Bennett Corporation in Wilmington, MA before moving to Kansas as part of a company merger. Mark then worked at Garmin International for 20 years before retiring in 2019 due to being diagnosed with Grade 4 Glioblastoma.
Mark had a passion for music, especially jazz. He had a great technical aptitude for sound and enjoyed spending his Sunday mornings helping at Christian Fellowship Baptist Church in their sound booth. He was very competitive and loved playing tennis and riding bikes on the Johnson County trail system. Mark was an avid reader, book club member and podcast fan – he was a passionate seeker of knowledge and truth.
Mark’s parents, Frederick and Kathleen Tompkins, preceded him in death. He is survived by his wife, Sharon, daughters, Erin and Rachael, sisters, Kim (McInnis) and Susan (Callen), stepmother, Carolyn Tompkins and many beloved cousins, nieces, and nephews.
A small family service will be held at Christ Community Church (Downtown Campus) on Saturday, March 27, 11:00 a.m. The service will be live-streamed at cckcdc.online.church. In lieu of flowers, memorials are suggested to Christian Fellowship Baptist Church, P.O. Box 16197, Kansas City, MO 64112.
I enjoyed working with Mark at both Nellcor Puritan Bennett and Garmin. He was a great calming influence and very knowledgeable. He also helped get tennis moving for Corporate Challenge in the earlier years. God Bless all of his family and my family will remember him in our prayers. May the souls of all the faithful departed, rest in peace.
I had the privilege of working very closely with Mark for several years right after he joined Garmin. Mark was a major contributor to many of Garmin’s early portable automotive products. He and I traveled the world together testing products, finding bugs, and keeping difficult customers satisfied. Mark was a true renaissance man – an outstanding engineer of rare talent who could easily move from solving a highly technical problem to a deep philosophical conversation without batting an eye. He solved some of the hardest engineering problems we faced, and mentored everyone who came to him for help and guidance.… Read more »
I was so sorry to hear about Mark’s passing. I know that as a family, you are going to hear that he was a great coworker (he was) and a great engineer (he was), so I was trying to think of something different I could add. I spent a lot of my years at Garmin on a team with Mark off and on and even got to share an office with him for a while, all of which was a huge privilege. He was our Chuck Norris, the man who could do anything. But I could also tell that he… Read more »
Mark and I met as freshmen in HS and quickly became best friends. The Tompkins’ household was my second home and I know Mark felt the same way about my parents and sibs. My best life memories include our trip to Europe for 2 months in 1978. We bought a VW Variant (we name the “White Cloud”) in Amsterdam and visited Holland, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Italy, Yugoslavia, Greece, Austria, and Germany. As free spirits: we picked up all hitchhikers, talked with everyone, ate local (mostly fresh baked bread, cheese, and assorted veggies), swam the Mediterranean, visited my Swiss relatives while… Read more »
Mark was a lovely person. I am so sad for his beautiful family. I have many fond memories for visiting and laughing with Mark at the Mssions prayer group. Looking forward to seeing him again in heaven.
I was a classmate of Mark’s at Wentworth in Boston, meeting him in 1981. He was a brilliant student, equally respected by classmates and professors. Double majoring in EE and Physics while working part time and having a young family was an amazing accomplishment by Mark (and Sharon too). On top of that, he also captained the Varsity Volleyball Team at Wentworth. I was fortunate to meet Mark early in our freshman year, and he recruited me to play volleyball. As I had limited volleyball experience prior to that, Mark spent a lot of extra time getting me up to… Read more »
Mark was my adopted ‘4th brother’ as he and my older brother Dave Rey were together so much if the time during high school years. One fond memory was he traveled to Chicago with me to visit Dave in grad school ‘just to surprise him.’ He was authentic in kindness and friendship. Loved his laugh.
Mark had a profound impact on me as a young professional as many of his other co-workers have attested to. I remember vividly the first time I was sent to his office as a junior engineer to ask a question and in the midst of whatever company critical fire I’m sure he was fighting at the time, he took time to help and mentor me. Not only did this enable us to innovate in new areas but that and many future interactions with him between myself or my team members has long served as an example of what servant leadership… Read more »