Mark Safferstone Obit

On August 31, 2021, Mark Safferstone went to be with the Lord. He was born on September 3, 1948 and was preceded in death by his parents Irving and Sylvia (Graber). He was born in Brooklyn, NY, raised in Niagara Falls, NY and relocated to Miami, FL in 1965 to finish high school and attend college. While raised as a Torah-based Jew by his parents, in 1992 Mark accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior and thereafter lived a Christian life. Mark leaves his wife of 35 years, Sharon (Fahey), children Todd (Rachel) of New York City, Chad of Boone, NC and Heather (Ryan)Nardontonia of Richboro, PA as well as three beloved granddaughters, Ella and Emily Safferstone and Susanna Nardontonia. He also leaves loving family members, brother-in-law George and sister-in-law Melody (Fahey) Hagg, brother-in-law Thomas Fahey in addition to many loving nieces, nephews and cousins. An educator by profession, Mark’s career started in 1970 as a Miami-Dade County School’s teacher, guidance counselor and guidance director during the court-ordered desegregation of the schools. While in Miami in the early 1980s, he was Mercy Hospital’s Director of Education followed by teaching at St. Thomas University before relocating to Virginia in 1986. Once in Virginia, he worked for the human resource departments of two state agencies and was an Assistant Professor at George Washington University before serving in an array of positions first as a visiting assistant professor and then as a member of the University of Mary Washinton’s administrative faculty from 1997 until he retired in 2016. He also conducted management consulting programs for senior executives at the Federal Executive Institute in Charlottesville, VA and for an array of federal agencies throughout the metropolitan Washington, DC region for 24 years. As a consultant with DWB & Associates, a northern Virginia strategy and leadership development consultancy, he was a team member that trained and consulted with Department of Health senior leaders throughout Florida for almost 15 years. Mark also demonstrated his commitment to lifelong learning and capitalized on the lessons he learned through his experiences. He was a below average high school student and flunked out of college the first semester of his freshman year, an experience he used to encourage others in similar circumstances. He returned home and completed his associate’s degree making the Dean’s List every semester at Miami-Dade Community College (now Miami Dade College) and went on to complete his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education at the University of Miami in 1970 and 1972 respectively. He then went to Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College, earning his Ph.D. in 1977 and finally earning his MBA from the University of Mary Washington in 2006. Aside from his educational and academic accomplishments, Mark learned to play the drums and golf at the age of 13, two recreational pursuits that stuck with him throughout his life. After a musical hiatus, he played the drums with his Virginia church’s contemporary Christian worship team for more than 15 years. Mark and Sharon relocated to Cape Cod after they retired and he enrolled in the Cape Cod Community College Jazz Combo class and continued playing. Mark’s interest in golf was renewed by his son Todd in the mid-1990s and while playing became increasingly physically difficult, he enjoyed Sunday afternoons at a nearby Harwich, MA golf course’s driving range and practice green. Even before retiring and while living in central Virginia, Mark served as a volunteer with the Fredericksburg Regional Chamber of Commerce, the Stafford County Economic Development Authority and the Rappahannock United Way. Once he relocated to Cape Cod, he volunteered with the Advocates for a Community College Education (A.C.C.E.), an organization that provides scholarships and mentoring for Cape high school students who attend Cape Cod Community College. He also was a founding member and participated in the meetings of the Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD) Collaborative, a collaborative care and research network for ILD patients and physicians that supports patients, families and care givers. Starting in 2001, he served as a volunteer reviewer with the American Library Association’s Choice Reviews for Academic Libraries authoring 65 short reviews and a professionally well-respected leadership-related bibliographic essay. Work, education, recreational and volunteer activities notwithstanding, the true joy in Mark’s life came from spending time with his granddaughters when they would visit Mark and Sharon first in Virginia and then on Cape Cod. Visits, which were never long enough, typically included bike riding, beach time, craft store shopping trips, super soaker squirt gun fights, watching his granddaughters chase rabbits around their yard and eating ice cream – lots of ice cream. With Mark’s wife Sharon, they were never without a Golden Retriever by their side, all of which were obedience-trained and Good Citizen certified. Their current blond boy, Max, is their first Golden mix and rescue who lives the charmed life and enjoys going almost everywhere with them. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the Pulmonary Fibrosis Fund at the Healthwell Foundation (healthwellfoundation.org), whose co-pay program contributed to the cost of Mark's pulmonary fibrosis medication, or to VNA Hospice (visit support.givetocapecodhealth.org and select "VNA Hospice").