Our proud Mark Earl Armstrong passed away on October 12, succumbing to end-stage kidney and heart failure. Born in San Diego in 1962, he was born into a family of five, and he spent his childhood and early life in San Diego, spending time tending to his dogs and starting his lifelong passion for fitness. He often loved telling his friends and family about the way his cat would jump from chair to table in his house because if his cat touched the ground for even a second, his dogs would hound it.

He spent much of his adult life moving around while working many different construction jobs, his favorite of which was pouring concrete. He loved telling his family about the day the company he worked for purchased a concrete pourer. Among other jobs he performed included jobs such as oil rigs and roadwork.

As he reached his 30s, he reached a major turning point in his life when most of his family would come to know him when he made the choice to settle down in Humboldt, where he would become familiar with the Eureka police, causing them quite the headache throughout his life. While he met and dated many women throughout his life, he would find his life partner in a woman named Julie Williams, who, while he never legally married, he and most others would consider his wife. Spending 23 years by his side before his passing, he also became the beloved father to her four children, as well as fathering one more with her.

His family quickly became one of his greatest joys in life. While often missing time due to being sent to jail many times throughout his life, when out of prison, he enjoyed sharing his love of sports, fitness, and fighting with his children, spending much time with his daughter Cynthia Retzloff, bragging about her skill in sports and fighting for the rest of his life. Sometimes, more than once a week, he often stated that he didn’t believe there was a man in Humboldt County who could beat her. While she never fell into sports like her sister, Mark would often talk about his daughter Sarah Retzloff, sometimes speaking about the potential she had for sports herself. Around this time, after some small amount of begging from his children, Mark would adopt a small Jack Russell terrier whose name would often switch between Sam, Sammy, and Samuel. He would stay with the family until his thirteenth year, dying just a year before Mark himself.

Alongside his sports, the family would go on summer trips to Willow Creek to swim and camp, making a yearly tradition to read Harry Potter to his children, starting his fifth child’s lifelong love of reading. This tradition would continue until most of his children had grown up and could no longer attend as they built their own lives. Around this time, the Armstrong family would become very briefly homeless after being kicked out of their home due to a police raid. They would soon move in with the family’s grandmother briefly, where they would adopt a red tick hound named Stanley, who would make himself known by peeing on Julie’s leg in their first meeting, and a mixed pitbull named Mama, who would become known for her hefty size despite her belief that she was a lap dog. Mark and his family would then move into McCullen’s Motel, where he would live until his death.

During this time, Mark’s life slowed down, now having only one child left to raise. Growing older, he would still grace many a gym in Eureka, proud of his ability to deadlift 450 pounds even in his fifties. He would put much of his later years into his dogs, walking them every day and often being seen throwing the ball at the park with them, his wife, and his son. Living with some ups and downs, Mark’s family life would soon come to an end when, after a long period of decline, he was admitted to a hospital and lost the ability to walk, as well as contracting diabetes. He would fight this condition for a year, regaining some ability to walk and returning home after nearly a year. However, unknown to his family, he was diagnosed with end-stage kidney and heart failure and was never going to live longer than the end of the year. Knowing this, he returned home for, as he put it, “a couple smiles and a couple laughs.” He would spend his last two weeks alive being tended to by his wife and occasionally watching a movie with his youngest son before having a stroke and dying peacefully, together with his family, after being taken off his ventilator at the request of his youngest son and receiving his last rites according to his faith.

Mark is survived by his loving wife of 23 years, Julie Williams, his fierce two daughters, Sarah and Cynthia Retzloff, and his proud three sons, including Mike and Robert Armstrong, as well as his mother, Etta Wood, and his sister, Jane Wendt.

Mark was known as both kind to his loved ones and fierce to those who went against him. He never lost a fight until the end.

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