Roll Call Tribute

Mark Richard Kawamura
January 9, 1957 – April 2, 2021

Mark Richard Mark Richard Kawamura passed away unexpectedly at home on Friday, April 2, 2021.

A private family memorial has been held. Mark was born on January 9, 1957 in Harlingen, Texas, the son of Mutsuo and Shizuka (Honma) Kawamura.

He married Maria (Mia) McCallum on April 25, 2003. He and Mia were perfectly matched-both engineers and both head-strong. Mark graduated from Texas A&M University, College Station Campus, with a BS in Industrial Engineering, Class of 1979. Mark's career spanned from Texas Instruments to Raytheon to IBM.

He enjoyed the travel, working with people and always learning more. His career was shaped by solving business challenges, mentoring, and helping others to achieve.

He was a child of a farming family in south Texas. His soul and his passion were working with Texas soil. He looked forward to sharing the bounty of his amazing gardens with family, friends and neighbors. He spent many happy hours creating a beautiful park-like yard. He believed he could grow anything and he usually could. He spent hours pouring over seed catalogs and planning his garden. He loved standing at the fence-line chatting with his neighbors.

Mark was a fabulous cook and always cooked with what came from his garden. It was one of he and Mia's favorite times cooking, setting a beautiful table, and long dinner conversations. He also enjoyed entertaining others in their home, always the gracious host. He had a deep appreciation of where he came from and how his family encouraged a life beyond the farm. He practiced and took comfort in family traditions.

We will be ever grateful for his kindness, generosity, his smile, his modesty and his many talents. He was a gentle man and full of joy. We are grateful, with all our hearts, for having him in our lives.

Those left to cherish his memory are his wife, Mia McCallum, his sisters, Janis Kawamura and Suzanne (Kawamura) Rabushka and husband John, sister-in-law Lisa Patterson and her husband Don, and nieces Brooke Patterson and Talia Rabushka.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorials be made to the Texas A&M Foundation, 401 George Bush Drive, College Station, Texas, 77840. Please designate the Mark R. Kawamura '79 Memorial.