Known to his many friends as Dewey, Dew, Cap, Dewey Dimmer Switch, Disco Dewey, Dad and Grandpa, Dewey Mark was remembered by his longtime business partner, Tony Ferruolo of Gilford, as "a goodwill guy and a great ambassador who just loved to have fun."
Mark died last week at 78 from complications of a brain tumor in Intervale where he was staying in the home of his daughter Terry O'Brien and son-in-law George O'Brien.
Ferruolo recalled that he first met Mark on the slopes in the early 1970s when the two were skiing in the Local Yokel races at Cranmore Mountain in North Conway. Taken by Mark's charisma, Ferruolo left the ski business to join Mark and his wife Jean in operating the Red Parka Pub and Steakhouse in Glen, marking the beginning of a partnership that lasted for 32 years and a friendship that endured forever.
Mark was an accomplished and competitive sailor, who once served as navigator aboard an entry in a race from Newport to Bermuda, and soon the partners established a beachhead in the Lakes Region with the opening B. Mae Denny's Eating and Drinking Establishment in Gilford in 1977. Ferruolo said he was surprised to find that he was suddenly also a partner in a Cessna airplane, Chris Craft cabin cruiser and black Cadillac limousine. "I had been quickly introduced and become part of Dewey's bucket list," he said.
With the opening of B. Mae's City Edition in Concord and Papa Mike's Mexican Cantina in Glen, the partnership thrived and Mark became one of the state's most celebrated restauranteurs. "Dewey liked to have fun, but he was also a well read man and a progressive thinker," Ferruolo said. In 1979 Mark served as president of the New Hampshire Lodging and Restaurant Association, paying a major role in forming the group's compensation trust, which enabled restauranteurs and innkeepers to save thousands of dollars in workers' compensation costs by pooling their purchasing power. Later he would apply the same principle in convening the Valley Originals, a group of 24 independent restaurants in the Mt. Washington Valley that together saved over $500,000 in purchasing and marketing costs. In 1980, Mark was named New Hampshire restauranteur of the year.
Greg Goddard, general manager of Gunstock Mountain Resort, described Mark as "one of my first mentors, a great businessman who taught me what it took to succeed in business." He said that when "B. Mae's was the place to go" he was tending bar at another watering hole, working hard against a background of loud country rock for $25 a night, when two of Mark's bartenders suggested he try working at B. Mae's. "One night Dewey and Tony visited," Goddard recalled. "They watched me work and chatted at the bar. I didn't think anything of it until Dewy came back and asked me if I'd like to work half as hard for twice the money." Goddard spent the next 20 years at B. Mae's, which he said was "like one big family."
Mark lived on Dockham Shore Road from 1977 until 1987, when he returned to the Mt. Washington Valley. where he left a rich legacy of service to the community. When Wally Campbell's Fandangle's Restaurant burned in September 2007, the Red Parka hosted a fund-raiser to assist Fandangle's employees.
“That was what Dewey was always all about — community,” said Campbell, who counted Mark one of his closest friends and business associates. Over the years Mark held many special fund-raisers for those in the community facing challenges.
Janice Crawford, executive director of the Mount Washington Valley Chamber of Commerce, sent an e-mail to chamber members after learning of Mark's death. Monday. “Dewey was a beacon of positive thinking and a superlative example of providing a great experience for any one who entered his home or business. I spoke to him just last Tuesday,” she wrote, “and he was having a great time at a friend's holiday party. Never did his voice waver from that strong voice of joy when we would talk about this latest challenge. [His daughter] Terry told me that he had a wonderful Christmas and just last night had a T-bone steak and a glass of red wine. That's Dewey!”
(The Conway Daily Sun contributed to this story)
