Thanks to you all for the kind words, prayers and support over the past week. Without question the toughest week of my life.
If you are in NZ and would like to join us this weekend to celebrate Marty’s life we will be gathering at the Empire Tavern at Noon on Sunday.
As we deal with the shock and pain of losing someone so dear to us so unexpectedly, we are comforted in knowing that Martin’s legacy will live on for generations to come. One only needs to spend a few minutes with the children, parents and teachers who benefited from the incredible passion Martin had for teaching to see the amazing difference he made in their lives.
To ensure that even more people will be touched and enriched by Martin’s incredible passion and talent, we are creating the Martin Lark Foundation. The Martin Lark Foundation, or MartinLark.org, will be dedicated to improving the lives of children in Thailand and elsewhere. We will do this in specific areas of need and also by providing children with better access to world-class education in the English language through scholarship programs and access to online resources that enable teachers to teach better.
To memorialize Martin’s fun-loving spirit we will also be building a playground at the orphanage near Martin’s home and creating a scholarship program for the English program he created here.
We invite you to join in our efforts and to see the difference one person can make. Your donation can be sent to MartinLark.org, 3801 N. Capital of Texas Hwy, Suite E240-148, Austin, Texas 78746-1416 USA
A big thanks to Kristen, Casey Jones and the brilliant team at RD2 for helping set this up so quickly.
I read about Martin on Sunday morning. Funny how news like this makes everything else seem so trivial.
Martin was a good friend at school, he was one of the five original boys from the infamous Dorm 5 at Prephouse. This dorm had the good fortune of containing the five least likely boys to conform in that years intake. The year was 1980, and every night was spent giggling away to the ridiculous and idiotic conversations after “lights out”.
Memory fades but as I recall it was myself, Jason Hoyte, Ross Hastings, Brendhan Lovegrove (?) and Martin Lark. I have always regarded that year as the most formative in my life and am so grateful that I was with those fellas. Although I have had little or no contact with any of them over the years they are never forgotten. I mean it was only just last night that Hoyte was in my living room flogging fly spray or something.
Martin was funny. We must have laughed for a year, solidly. Not being particularly witty myself I just used to lie there at night, listening to them feeding off each other, egging each other on, sledging, teasing and generally being hilarious. Occasionally there would be a round of dares. Martin always came up with the hardest ones. I would usually oblige, as it was the only way in which I felt I could return their entertainment.
He is the first to go I think, the first from our wonderful dorm. I will miss Martin, miss knowing he is out there doing the marvellous things he has.
But then, I have always missed him.