Mark Stanley Baldwin, 74, died July 13, 2026 in Overland Park, Kansas. He was born to Margaret and Stan Baldwin on January 12, 1952, as a tiny premature baby, and he spent his first several weeks in the hospital. As the first grandchild on both sides of the family, he was joyfully welcomed by grandparents Carl and Marie (Kaltenbach) Bechtel, Harland and Margaret (Wilhite) Baldwin, and great aunts Bess Wilhite and Emma Kaltenbach, all of whom were important in his life. With nearby aunts and uncles and plenty of cousins, he lived an early life surrounded by love and family. Grandparents each hosted one Sunday dinner a month for the family that included monthly birthday parties.

Mark enjoyed his status as the eldest of five siblings. He was musically sensitive, accurately telling his mother at the age of seven that the vacuum cleaner whine was the A above middle C. He took piano and cornet lessons and played in the high school band, a performance which he characterized as “undistinguished”. Mark had a habit of blaming someone for coming in and stealing his things when he misplaced something. Exasperated, his mother told him that if someone did come to steal things, it wouldn’t be a ninth-grade algebra book. On family vacations, Mark always claimed the navigator position in the middle of the front seat to avoid squashing in with the rest of the siblings in the back of the station wagon. Surrounded by atlases and maps, he frustrated his father (who was often driving) by offering multiple options for getting through a city, when all that was wanted was a single set of directions. He also claimed a disproportionate amount of car space by bringing about forty books, none of which his siblings can remember him reading.

With his father, brothers, and youth from the church, he went on frequent camping and canoeing outings, played church basketball, and showed a keen interest in school. After high school graduation, he attended Calvary Bible College in Kansas City and graduated with a degree in biblical studies. He continued with his studies at Regents College in Vancouver, BC, where he worked towards a Masters in theology. Summers were spent working in quality control at Armco Steel, where his father worked—a union job which paid well enough to allow him to continue his love of learning. He spent several years at the University of Kansas taking classes he enjoyed, singing in the men’s choir, and working at the IT help desk. When the summer job dried up, he quickly graduated with degrees in chemistry, anthropology, linguistics, and computer programming. As a young adult, Mark traveled to Israel and Mexico, visited relatives in Switzerland, and spent time with a missionary friend in India.

Mark loved his nieces and nephews and was an important presence in their young lives. His highly original bedtime stories enhanced their vocabularies but did little to calm them for rest. Some of the most fondly remembered stories were about Abraham Lincolnovski, who lived in a log cabin in the Kremlin, and retellings of the Three Little Pigs where a slavering wolf chased after piglets named for his nieces and nephews. He liked to gently tease, and in turn enjoyed being teased. He handed out generous gifts at Christmas, and eagerly participated in family parties. Mark instituted “park survival kits”, his financial gift to each child headed to Silver Dollar City amusement park during annual family reunions.

Mark was part of the early wave of programmers who headed to California, living for several years in the Los Angeles area and working for TRW and Toyota. He said he programmed from a chemical formula viewpoint, where everything had to be balanced. Health issues eventually forced him to

return to the Kansas City area, where he subsequently worked at Western Auto and eventually at the IRS, after his cousin and good friend Rick Lauchlan convinced him to apply.

After his return from California, Mark purchased a home in Prairie Village, Kansas. He and cousin Rick shared the house for a while, but increasingly ill health forced Mark to move back in with his parents. He generously allowed a sequential stream of his young adult nieces and nephews to live in the house rent-free over the decade or so after he moved out and before he sold it. Mark retired from the IRS in 2020 as a combination of health concerns and COVID uncertainties made it impossible for him to continue working.

Mark continued to live with his father in Overland Park at the family home after his mother’s death in 2006. He and his father moved in with sister Charis and her husband Roy when the family home was sold in 2020. Mark was close to his father, and was with Stan when he passed away in 2022. The addition of adopted nieces to the household brought new energy, and Mark fully engaged with them, teasing as in earlier days.

Faith was important to Mark. He considered becoming a missionary translator before choosing a programming career. He supported five missionaries for many years, until he retired. Mark attended Southwest Bible Church, and then Woodson Avenue Bible Church, where he played the organ. As an accompanist, he was forced to read music—he had played by ear for personal enjoyment for years, favoring keys with lots of sharps. Mark also composed several hymns and enjoyed classical music, especially Bach.

Mark was a repository of family history, recalling conversations with relatives his siblings were too young to remember. His acute memory was called upon for names, dates, and locations as well as family stories. He maintained correspondence with friends and family, encouraging their endeavors. He was a loyal friend and visited those in the hospital and nursing home. An avid conversationalist, he was always interested in those different from himself. He was willing to debate almost any topic, never with malice, but for the joy of mental stimulation—it wasn’t about winning or losing.

Mark never lost his love of learning, continuing to watch YouTube videos on how to fix computer bugs after he retired. He delighted in the idea of Wikipedia and wanted the doomsday download. He over-programmed his smart phone into a terminal decline.

Mark is remembered for his generosity, intelligence, teasing, musical skills, and an insatiable quest for information. He loved and was loved by his family.

Mark was preceded in death by his parents, Margaret (Bechtel) and Stan Baldwin. He is survived by his siblings and their spouses, nieces, and nephews: Jonathan and Angie (Dunn) Baldwin, Vanessa, Zoë (Reece Going ), Simone, Jonathan, Gabrielle (Jeremiah Wicks), and James; Carol Baldwin, Craig Blocksome, Daniel, Rebecca, and Patricia; David and Norma (Rhoades) Baldwin, Caroline and Brittney (Ray Orellano); Charis and Roy Baldwin Phillips, Eliana, Jasmin, and Lexi; and great-nieces and nephew Rhea, Riley, Cailey, Kierce, Starla, Georgia, Rosalie, and Athena. He is also survived by ten cousins and their families; Barb (Sandberg) Hall, Steven Sandberg, Laura (Lauchlan) Blundell,

Linda (Lauchlan) Ahern, Bob Lauchlan, Rick Lauchlan, Andy Lauchlan, Amy (Hormberg) Oden, Brett Hormberg, and Brian Hormberg.

Mark was laid to rest at Johnson County Memorial Gardens in Overland Park. Funeral services will be held Saturday, August 22, 2026 at 11 a.m. at Woodson Avenue Bible Church. In lieu of flowers memorial contributions are suggested to Hymnary.org or Woodson Ave Mission Fund.