Mark Robert Howard, former Chandler Baseball Coach, Science Teacher and Secondary Principal died March 14, at Chandler Nursing Center. Mark, who was a loving father, husband and a dedicated Chandler Lion, succumbed to an extended struggle against early onset Alzheimer's disease.

Mark was born on October 2, 1961 and attended Blair High School, Blair, Oklahoma, where he graduated in 1979.

He attended Altus Community College and graduated from Southwest Oklahoma State University in 1987, with a degree in Secondary Education. In 1991, he earned a graduate degree from the University of Central Oklahoma in Education Administration.

Mark was hired as the Chandler Baseball Coach in 1988, he spent the remainder of his life as a Chandler Lion, leading the baseball team to 420 victories, 16 District Championships, and 6 state baseball tournaments including 3 State Championships. He was named the Oklahoma Baseball Coaches Association Coach of the year for 1997 and 2005, the Senior Sunbelt Coach in 2004 and 2005, and in 2009, was inducted into the Oklahoma Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame.

Mark spent hundreds of hours painting, watering and mowing the Chandler Baseball field and its improvements and expansion was a source of tremendous satisfaction to him. Appropriately in 2007 it was renamed Mark Howard Park.

He was preceded in death by his mother, Shirley Bayles Howard.

He is survived by his wife, Melody King Howard of Chandler; daughters Randee and Karlee, both of the home; his father, Marshall Howard of Oklahoma City; brothers and sisters-in-law, Stuart and Rhonda of Oklahoma City, Michael and Candy of Sayre, Stephen and Donna of Norman; sister, Marsha Burridge of Oklahoma City; father and mother-in-law, Eddie and Jody King of Clinton; brother-in-law and spouse, Jeff and Jena King of Clinton; brother-in-law Scott King of Clinton; sister-in-law and spouse, Pam and Fred Andrews of Clinton, numerous nieces, nephews, and grandnieces and grandnephews.

Services are Wednesday, March 18, 2009, at First Baptist Church of Chandler.

Burial will follow at Oak Park Cemetery in Chandler.

Services under the direction of Parks Brothers Funeral Home of Chandler, Oklahoma.

In lieu of flowers, the family has requested donations to the Alzheimer's Association, 6465 South Yale Avenue, Suite 312, Tulsa, Oklahoma 74736-7804 at www.alzokar.org.