Men of the Hour

Mark Taylor: A life defined by altruism

by Chuck Wisman

Around the world, Nov. 19 is recognized as International Men’s Day to “celebrate, worldwide, the positive value men bring to the world, their families, and communities.” Once again, in our November issue, Stockbridge Community News is featuring Men of the Hour—three men from our own little corner of the world who make a notable difference in our community. Congratulations to Mark Taylor for being nominated as a Man of the Hour. This is Mark’s story.

Although Mark retired from a successful career as director of the Department of Orthotics and Prosthetics at U-M, he considers his time as a father and grandfather to be his greatest achievement. Photo provided by Mark Taylor

It’s not often we have the opportunity to know people who dedicate their lives and careers in the pursuit of helping others. One such person is Mark Taylor, who made Stockbridge his home in 1993 by way of rural Idaho, Oklahoma, and even Japan.

Mark grew up on a small farm in View, Idaho, located adjacent to the South Sawtooth Mountains. View is so small and isolated it’s tough to locate any information about it, even via Google. Yet, Mark fondly reflects on his childhood growing up there with his four siblings, parents and extended family.

He has a multitude of stories from his youth spent on that farm, including trying to locate cows for milking while facing huge snowdrifts and the relentless wind in the winter months. As a young kid, he regularly rode horses bareback, routinely operated tractors and other equipment, and performed all the daredevil antics farm kids did in those days, motivated by an unlimited imagination.

Following high school and one semester of college, Mark completed a two-year mission in Japan for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. To this day he retains some fluency in Japanese. Subsequently, he attended Brigham Young University in Provo, Idaho, and simultaneously attended an orthotics certification program in Southern California. He later attended the University of Oklahoma, earning a master’s degree in health care. This led to him establishing his own orthotics business in Oklahoma, where Mark met his future wife, Nancy, a nurse. The two of them were attending to the same patient when they first met. At that time, Mark and Nancy settled on a small farm in Oklahoma, along with a few farm animals.

During this period, Mark experienced increasing, severe hip pain. As an infant, he had contracted polio, and that ultimately caused weakness in his hip and lower extremities. As an adult in Oklahoma, the pain increased to the point where it became debilitating. No one in that geographic area could help him medically. Mark learned of a research program at the University of Michigan that offered him hope. He subsequently met with representatives of that program in Ann Arbor.

Mark Taylor with baby granddaughter Eloise Higgs. Photo provided by Dr. Erin Clifton.

Although they couldn’t help him medically, they unexpectedly offered him the directorship of the orthotics and prosthetics department at the University of Michigan. U-M representatives also referred him to a specialist located in the Detroit area who might have the expertise to help him with his hip. Mark met with this specialist who did, in fact, help Mark greatly by devising a method to rebuild Mark’s hip, freeing him from chronic pain and allowing him greater ambulation.

For those not familiar, orthotics is the science of supporting the extremities with various devices to relieve pain and/or support the extremity, such as with wedges, braces, etc. Prosthetics is the science of replacing an extremity with an artificial device to restore the function of that extremity.

During Mark’s directorship of the Department of Orthotics and Prosthetics at U-M, the program was rated as one of the best orthotics and prosthetics clinical practices in the U.S. Basically, Mark became an expert in biomechanical engineering. He also spent time teaching the science of orthotics and prosthetics at U-M and Eastern Michigan University.

After starting his job in Ann Arbor, Mark often encountered Stockbridge-area residents in his work and practice. As they began searching out places to live in Michigan, Mark’s wife and mother-in-law located a home in, of all places, the Village of Stockbridge. In 1993, Mark, Nancy, and their four children—Erin, Larissa, Scott and Emily—relocated from their small farm in Oklahoma to Stockbridge. Nancy soon began working here as a school bus driver, and their children attended and graduated from Stockbridge schools.

In 2016, Mark retired from the university, but he maintained a very busy lifestyle of volunteering in our community. Nancy and he joined the Stockbridge Lions Club, and he’s active with the Stockbridge Area Senior Center and Outreach, serving on the boards of both organizations.

Mark uses the term “retired” loosely, as he continues part-time work traveling the country completing surveys and inspections of healthcare facilities for professional accreditation.

Looking back, Mark was most influenced by his grandmother who always looked out for him and supported him through thick and thin during his childhood. He describes her as having had wisdom beyond her years and he appreciates that she always advocated for him. Although his early bout with polio had weakened him, physically, he recalls one time when he was determined to jump from hay bales stacked high in the barn. His grandma was right there supporting him as he tested his limits.

Mark Taylor and his wife, Nancy, with grandson Nash Taylor. Photo provided by Dr. Erin Clifton.

His faith also played an important role in teaching him the fundamentals of ethics, values, empathy, and caring for others. It was an expectation in their community of View, Idaho, to always help out others who encountered a difficult time, whether that meant caring for their animals, working their fields, or whatever.

Mark considers his greatest achievement to be the time he has spent as a father and grandfather. Nancy and he are blessed with four children and six grandchildren with one on the way. Although all of their children left the area for college or training, they each returned—three to the greater Stockbridge area and one to Saline—and they all have very successful careers. Right here in Stockbridge, their daughter Erin has a thriving chiropractic practice.

If you haven’t had the pleasure of meeting Mark, you only have to attend a Stockbridge High School basketball game for either boys or girls. There you will find him announcing the game as he has done for the past 15 years. In the years before that, he served as announcer for the Stockbridge High School varsity and junior varsity football games and basketball as well.

Although Mark misses the mountains of his childhood, he loves all aspects of Michigan. He has so enjoyed the Stockbridge community, and he humbly hopes he’s reciprocated in the kindness and care the community has shown him and his family.

To quote Mark, “I was always told, the Taylors will do their share to help out whenever and whoever. I guess that is where I obtained my desire to help out when and where I can. As I get older, I realize that my ability to help is dwindling, but my desire to do so is not.”