Mark Shuman

Mark Samuel Shuman, 88, of Carrboro, NC passed away peacefully in his home on Thanksgiving Day, November 28, 2024, surrounded by each of his three children, their spouses, his four grandchildren, and his best friend, caregiver, and life partner, Rhonda Rangeo

Mark was born on July 29, 1936, in Yakima, Washington State, the youngest child of an orchard farming family. He graduated from Yakima High School in 1955 and penned the following writeup for his 50th high school reunion in 2005.

In Mark’s own words,

“When I try to remember Yakima High School 1953-55, I either shudder or laugh. Shudder at recalling how awkward and socially inept I felt and laugh at how silly and absurd school seemed to me. I think I slept or daydreamed through most of my classes except when I had to dodge spitballs from the likes of William McClure, Roger Schneider, or David Neer. I also recall many other good friends. Sadly, I have lost track of all.

I did enjoy one class: Leona Conner’s, my final semester. I landed there when I insisted on switching my schedule around to get math with Mr. Rafael. It was a battle of wills, mine against several teachers’ including Mrs. Edwards, whose English Composition class I would abandon to make the switch. I was confronted by them and given dire warnings about how I was jeopardizing my future abilities to write and understand English! I thought this was bizarre behavior, and it probably reflected some jealousy I neither understood nor cared about.

Leona Conner turned out to be an excellent English teacher. She respected students by saying something like, “I can teach you something if you want to pay attention and stretch yourself beyond what you think you can do.” I did pay attention, and I did stretch. I was rewarded with serious and useful oversight on a writing project that was especially important to me.

Here are a few raw statistics of my last 50 years. I took a degree in chemistry at Pullman, did military service near Baltimore, and worked at a small company in Alexandria, VA, manipulating chemical things that like to blow up. After a co-worker lost his arm, I decided to go to graduate school at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. I taught chemistry at Texas Christian in Ft. Worth and at Whitman College in Walla Walla before taking a postdoctoral fellowship to UNC at Chapel Hill. I was hired as regular faculty the next year and retired Emeritus Professor of Environmental Chemistry after about 30 years of research and teaching.

My two daughters, Kim, Donna, and Bryce live on the Pacific Coast. I live here in NC, where my household is dominated by a crazy mutt who must be a fox hybrid judging from her intense interest in rabbits.

I spent 1996-2000 in Yakima at my family’s old house and orchard on 32nd Ave., hiked the mountains a lot and had an enjoyable time renewing a friendship with my cousin and classmate Bob Martin. I continue to buy and sell old and rare books, something I have enjoyed doing for over 20 years. I am constructing a Japanese stroll garden in my backyard that is full of conifers and maples. I travel to the Northwest occasionally to visit my daughters and walk the trails.

I do not play saxophone anymore but do play banjo in an “old timey” Appalachian claw-hammer style. I imagine if I would pick up the sax and audition for the YHS Memory Band, Ellsworth Lyons and Elmer Peters would yell, “Next!” after the first eight bars. Nevertheless, I think I could still beat them at picking pears, but that is another story . . . “

Retirement treated Mark well. He enjoyed his “farmhouse” home in Carrboro and landscaped garden but always yearned to be hiking out West. He had a knack for finding unusual rocks and they joined his considerable collection of fascinating memorabilia.

His passion, after retiring, was antiquarian book dealing until the internet took the mystery out of knowledgeable book selling. He managed an enormous collection of books and collectibles in several antique malls. He loved the thrill of the hunt for old and unusual objects, and they populated his shelves.

Mark played banjo, created collages, wrote children’s stories, enjoyed being part of a writer’s group, loved British mysteries on Britbox, did not have a TV or a smartphone and loved his Irish whiskey.

An avid gardener, influenced by Asian gardens, he used gravel, boulders, and bamboo to create a lovely backyard stroll garden. He and Rhonda spent much time and money searching nurseries for rare and unusual plants, and he always marveled that the garden gave so much pleasure.

As his own travels tapered off, he relished visits from, and gourmet meals cooked by his professional chef son and handy-in-the-kitchen daughters.

Mark relied upon and appreciated Rhonda’s daily care and companionship, and he tolerated a single snappy snarl from her pooch, Banjo, who ritualistically yet futilely defended his cage as Mark approached the dining room table each evening.

Mark was preceded in death by his parents, Samuel, and Ardella (Martin) Shuman, and brothers, Wesley, and Howard.

He is survived by Rhonda Rangeo, his three children: Kim Shuman of Camano Island, WA, Bryce (Jennifer) Shuman of Brooklyn, NY, Donna (Bob) Bergeron of Seattle, WA, and grandchildren Emilia and Laila Shuman, and Luc and Colette Bergeron

Arrangements are in the care of Walker’s Funeral Homes in Chapel Hill, NC. Online condolences may be shared at https://www.walkersfuneralservice.com.