Mark Weaver Tschurr
March 13, 1963 - March 10, 2024

Mark Weaver Tschurr, beloved husband, father, brother and friend, died on Sunday, March 10, of complications from metastatic cancer. Mark always felt fortunate to have lived a wonderful life full of family, adventure, and service both to others and to his own ideals.

He was born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee to parents Gloria and Leland Tschurr, on March 13, 1963 and grew up in Dallas, one of five boisterous siblings in a Catholic family. He attended Mary Immaculate Elementary, Jesuit College Prep and R.L.Turner High School before enlisting in the United States Air Force, where he served as an electronics technician on F4E aircraft with the 35thTFW at George Air Force Base in Victorville, CA. Mark received several awards for serving with distinction during his tenure, and before leaving the USAF, he completed two associate degrees and a Bachelor of Science in Electronics at Southern Illinois University.

Mark transitioned from the USAF to a position as an engineer on an advanced F16 development group with General Dynamics in Fort Worth, Texas. In 1987, he founded Tschurr Technology Corp., a Dallas-based company that supplied automation and vision inspection solutions for the emerging semiconductor industry. Texas Instruments was his first customer. In 1989, Tschurr Technology expanded to Austin and Mark relocated there shortly afterwards. Finding his true home in Austin, Mark loved swimming in Barton Springs, biking on Barton Creek, and running on the Town Lake trail every chance that his schedule allowed. There he met his future wife, Betsy Williams, a Ph.D candidate and acquisitions editor at UT Press at the time. In the early 90s, Mark became a strong advocate for Barton Springs, co-founding Austin Business Leaders for the Environment (ABLE) with John Mackey, serving on the board of The Hill Country Foundation, and fighting to help pass the Save Our Springs Initiative (1992) to protect the Edwards Aquifer. For his effort, Mark was honored as one of fifteen "Guardians of Barton Springs" by SOS. In 1993 Mark entered the local political mix to run for city council. Determined to dispel the false argument of business versus the environment, he believed protecting the environment was fundamental to long term economic vibrancy and was also vehemently opposed to corporate subsidies. He continued to work on these causes most of his life, although he lost the election in the runoff.

In 1995, Helen Weaver Tschurr was born, and Mark, Betsy and Helen moved to Minneapolis as Tschurr Technology merged with Microvision, Inc. Mark joined the company as executive vice president and board member. His work took him all over the world, and he placed Microvision's technology in fabs from Singapore to China, and from Virginia to Silicon Valley. Son Henry Percy Tschurr joined the family in 1998.

Microvision was acquired by Electro-Scientific Industries in 1999, and Mark and his family returned to Austin. There were many offers of employment, however, he chose the most tempting one: stay-at-home dad, chief carpool chauffeur and head dishwasher. He also continued his interests in environmental philanthropy and activism, chairing the board of the Save our Springs Alliance and participating in projects that protected our environment -- working hard to encourage corporate relocations off the recharge zone into downtown or into less sensitive areas north and east of Austin. Mark also worked on conservation easements on the watershed and helped facilitate loans to protect Jacob's Well. Most recently he served as interim director of the nonprofit Great Springs Project, helping the then fledgling organization refine its mission to build public trails connecting all the springs from San Antonio to Barton Springs.

Mark loved distance running and the outdoors. He spent six years as a member of the St. Stephen's Episcopal School athletic department where, under the entity SpartanRunner, he mentored both middle and upper school distance runners. He created a preseason XC camp in Colorado, where he combined the joy of running with the excitement of wilderness adventure. He enjoyed being the Wilderness First Responder chaperone on middle school trips to Big Bend. Along with several St. Stephen's upperclassmen, he founded "Breakthrough Gets Fit," a fitness program for Breakthrough students which is still part of the Breakthrough curriculum to this day. Mark encouraged the student athletes to give of themselves to others through their service and was often heard to say that service involved sacrifice -- of one's time, of one's effort, and of one's generosity of spirit. Mark believed deeply in the value of social purpose.

During all of Mark's business and community activities, he was surrounded by wonderful mentors and developed life-long friendships with many of them. He was always grateful to Microvision partners Paul Sjolund, Tom Randgaard, associate Greg Dooley, and environmental activists Helen Ballew, Bill Bunch, and Deborah Morin, and his co-coaches Barry Coffman, Melissa Livsey, Kurt Oehler, and his wife Betsy.

When not coaching, Mark loved hiking, backpacking and climbing mountains, especially with Betsy, Helen, and Henry. In summers, the family traveled to our nation's national parks, and together they hiked many of Colorado's fourteeners as well as Mt. Rainier, Mt. St. Helen's, and others. One of his treasured hikes was a day hike to the Colorado River and back up to the rim at the Grand Canyon. At eighteen miles and over eight thousand feet of up and down elevation, he called it his "annual stress test." Eventually peaks gave way to valleys, and Mark and his wife and friends took long walks in Scotland, Ireland, Spain, and Italy, with many more planned.

Mark often shared stories from his childhood with his own children, regaling them with tales of pranks, many missteps, and near catastrophes that occurred among the five siblings when they were growing up. He dearly loved his brother Hans (Liz Tschurr), his sisters Anita, Monique (Ross Jennings), Michele (Nick Lorette), and his sister-in-law Anne Williams. He was always proud of his nieces and nephews: Jacob, Grace, Isabel, Skyler, Trout, Monique, and his grand-niece Nola.

He was happiest spending time with his own children, Helen and Henry, who survive him, and Betsy, his wife of twenty-nine years. He was always mindful of and grateful for the participation and support of his children and his wife in his philanthropic and business endeavors. They gave of themselves and their time when he asked, and even when he did not, Helen and Henry were inspired to continue to volunteer with several of these organizations during the school year and in their summers.

He was beloved by all of us, and most especially and deeply by Betsy, Helen and Henry. We shall miss him every moment, and we cherish the example he provided on how to love life and value those things that truly matter: family, friendship, a beautiful starry night. As one of his favorite poets writes, "When it's over, I want to say: all my life/I was a bride married to amazement./I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms."

There will be a memorial service later this spring.

In his memory and in lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to one of the following organizations that Mark championed:

Save Our Springs Alliance http://www.sosalliance.org

Great Springs Project http://www.greatspringsproject.org

St. Stephen's Episcopal School's Outdoor Education and Land Management Program http://www.givecampus.com/campaigns/28664/donations/new or mail: 6500 St. Stephen's Drive, Austin, TX 78746 attn: SSES Annual Fund, note for Outdoor Ed, in honor of Mark Tschurr