Mark Thomas Willems, 63, died Sunday, Feb. 26, 2017, at Wesley Medical Center, Wichita. He was born Oct. 26, 1953, in McPherson, to Alvin E. and Ruthe E. (Keller) Willems.

Mark graduated from McPherson High School in 1971 and McPherson College in 1979, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Technology. His first job was delivering prescriptions and working at the soda fountain at Raleigh's Drug Store in downtown McPherson. Mark enjoyed a career in the plastics industry, most recently as a manufacturing engineer at Central Plastics Inc. of McPherson. He had lived in Hutchinson since 1996.

Like his father before him, Mark could build or repair anything, given time and the right tools. He appreciated fine vintage automobiles and had plans to restore a 1965 Mustang and a 1931 Model A pick-up in his retirement. In the early 1990s, he won a '57 Chevy in a contest sponsored by Snap-On Tools.

Throughout his lifetime, Mark enjoyed trips with family and friends to Chalk Creek Canyon, Colorado. In recent years, those trips involved fishing and riding motorcycles or ATVs with his brother and brothers-in-law. Mark and Machelle enjoyed traveling, too, and they usually chose quaint destinations filled with artists, galleries and antiques.

Mark farmed the family's "home place" with his father for many years, and he helped plant a windbreak that won a Kansas Bankers Award for soil conservation in 1995.

On Jan. 27, 1996, he married Machelle E. Roesler, in McPherson. She survives.

Other survivors include: his mother, Ruthe Willems of McPherson; sisters, Susan Hornbaker and husband Gordon of Elizabeth, CO, and Janette Hess and husband Bryan of McPherson; brother, Brent Willems and wife Arleen Paulino of Singapore; many aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and cousins.

Mark was preceded in death by his father, Alvin.

Funeral service will be 10:30 a.m. Saturday, March 4, 2017, at Elliott Mortuary, Hutchinson, with Pastor Chris Whitacre officiating. Burial will follow in Memorial Park Cemetery, 5905 W 4th Ave., Hutchinson. Friends may call from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday and Friday, with the family present to receive friends from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday at Elliott Mortuary. Memorials may be made to Disabled American Veterans, McPherson County Humane Society, or Dillon Nature Center, in care of Elliott Mortuary, 1219 N. Main, Hutchinson, KS 67501.