Mark Anderson, a longtime Whatcom County resident and Realtor, passed away Jan. 5, 2018 in Bellingham.
Mark was born May 4, 1943 in Seattle to Albert and June Anderson. They moved to a home at Cherry Point where he grew up. He attended schools at Pt. Whitehorn for his elementary years, and Blaine middle and high schools where he excelled in athletics. After graduation, he attended school at Central Washington College and gained a BA degree in parks & recreation and business. Mark was active in the U.S. Air Force Reserves and ROTC.
After college he married Karen Ostrander and together they had two children, Eric and Wendy. They settled in Whatcom County where he started his career in real estate as he opened Mark Anderson Land and Escrow Companies. In 1990 he married Ellie Souve. Mark and Ellie continued the business together for the last 25 years. Mark was an incredible speaker and spoke in front of the state legislature and spoke with Lou Tice. He was very fair-minded and showed an enormous amount of common sense. He served on many boards which included the county Parks Commission and Whatcom Land Trust. He also served as president of the Washington State Realtors Association, president of the Bellingham-Whatcom County Board of Realtors and vice-chair of the Whatcom County Land Use Committee. He taught real estate law at Western Washington University as well as Whatcom Community College. Mark was an avid Washington Huskies football fan.
Mark is survived by his wife, Ellie; daughter Wendy, of Alaska, Roger (Shaun-Marie) Souve, Melanie Souve (Scott Chisholm) and Ryan (Teresa) Souve; two sisters, Jan (Brad) Brown and Sue Ranger; two nieces, Jessica (Mark) Sturtz and Elisa (Jason) Nelson, and nephew Jarrad Ranger; his aunt Marj; two cousins, Greg (Roxie) Rusing and Kim Rusing; his eight grandchildren: Heather, Rachel, William (Kristina) Van Vleet, Mikayla, Courtney, Christopher, Keenan and Karlee; and four great-grandchildren: Parker, Logan, Hudson, and Kaden.
Mark was preceded in death by his son, Eric; his parents, Al and June Anderson; sister Kaaran Cannon, uncle Jim Rusing and cousin Steve Rusing.
We give thanks to the folks at Christian Health Care (especially Shone, who took such good care of Mark).
The family is honored to invite you to a celebration of Mark’s life that will be held at the Deming Logging Show Museum, 3295 Cedarville Rd., Bellingham, at 1 p.m. Saturday, July 7.
Please share your thoughts and memories at www.sigsfuneralservices.com.
