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Story, photos and other info as provided by Kokomo
Tribune
http://www.kokomotribune.com
Mark E.
Horner
Feb. 14, 1963-June 18, 2006
Mark
Horner, 43, 500 north block of 1100 East, drowned Saturday night during a
fishing accident in Wildcat Creek east of Jerome, according to a Howard County
Sheriff Department release.
Fishing with his son and two of the boy’s friends in the creek behind 2225 S.
1100 East, Horner apparently drowned after helping one the boys out of deep
water.
“It was very hot [Saturday] and the boys apparently waded into the water and
then they got into deeper water. [Horner] went in to assist them and pushed one
of boys back to shallow water,” Sheriff Marty Talbert said. “When the boys
reached the bank, they didn’t see him anymore.”
The creek bank in the area is steep and covered with heavy brush.
“The creek runs about a quarter mile behind the residence, so it took some time
to summon help,” Talbert said.
Sheriff dispatchers received a 911 call shortly before 9 p.m. reporting Horner
missing and that he had possibly drowned.
Divers from the sheriff department, and Indiana Department of Natural Resources
searched the muddy waters until approximately 3 a.m. Sunday, the sheriff said,
before deciding to return during daylight.
“The water was not flowing fast. The creek in this location has some very deep
nine- and 10-foot pockets,” Sheriff’s Lt. Greg Hargrove said in a press release.
Howard County Emergency Management Agency and Greentown Fire Department
illuminated the scene with generators and portable emergency floodlights. EMA
also brought equipment capable of refilling air tanks on the scene.
The divers resumed their search at 10 a.m.
“One of the youngsters was able to point out much more precisely where the
victim was last observed in the water during daylight Sunday,” Hargrove said.
Diver Tony Cook of the sheriff department located Horner shortly after suiting
up and re-entering the creek.
Obituary
Mark E. Horner, 43, Greentown, died at
11:35 a.m. Sunday June 18, 2006. He was born Feb. 14, 1963, in Kokomo to Johnny
and Judith (West) Horner. He married Patty Orlina Nov. 5, 1988, in Indianapolis.
He graduated from Taylor High School in 1981 and has an associate degree from
Vincennes University in building materials and merchandising.
He attended Christian Life Fellowship Church; coached Little League and middle
school and high school wrestling at Eastern for 14 years. He also coached
baseball at all levels in Greentown for 14 years. He enjoyed hunting, sitting by
a campfire, watching the History Channel, but mostly spending time with his
family and coaching youth athletics in Greentown.
He is survived by his wife, parents, two sons, Mike and John Horner, Greentown;
daughter, Stephanie Horner, Kokomo; two brothers, Jim and wife Lori Horner and
John and wife Marnie Horner; grandparents, W. James and Helen West, Kokomo;
three nieces, Holly, Sara, Lileigh; two nephews, Wesley and Levi; mother-in-law,
Virginia Orlina, Chicago; brother-in-law, Rick Orlina and fiance, Roni Geva,
Chicago; many aunts, uncles and cousins.
He was preceded in death by his grandparents, John and Verda Horner;
father-in-law, Armando R. Orlina; cousin, Billy Parker.
Services will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday in Christian Life Church, 1009 Holiday Dr.
Greentown. Pastors Gary Hoover and Paul Boss will officiate. Family and friends
may call from 2 to 7 p.m. Tuesday at the church and one hour prior to service in
the church. Burial will be in Greenlawn Cemetery, Greentown.
Memorials can be made to the family and envelopes will be provided. Arrangements
are by Hasler-Stout Funeral Home.
More about
Mark
Remembering Greentown's Mark Horner
By JOHN DEMPSEY
Tribune business writer
— Webster’s New World
Dictionary defines a hero as: any person admired for courage, nobility or
exploits.
It also offers a second definition as: any person admired for qualities or
achievements and regarded as an
ideal or model.
Saturday night, Greentown lost a hero who met both definitions.
Mark Horner drowned saving his son from the same fate in Wildcat Creek near
Jerome.
The 43-year-old man will be missed for his heavy involvement with the youth of
Greentown and Eastern
School Corp. Horner spent years coaching baseball, football and wrestling.
“Mark was so much more than an average man,” Eastern High School wrestling coach
Craig Standish
said. “He was a good parent, a good coach, and I’m sure he was a good husband.
Mark was the kind of
person you want your kids to be around. He dedicated all that time to other
people’s kids — not just his
own.
“It’s a tragedy for a number reasons: for his family, who lost a father and
husband; and for the
community, who lost someone of a very special caliber.”
After a Saturday morning baseball game, Horner accompanied his son, John, and
three friends — Gatlin
Hinesley, Josh Maple and Clay Marner — on a campout at his parents’ property on
County Road 1100
East.
He took the soon-to-be seventh-graders for a ride back to the creek on a
Kawasaki Mule.
“We got out, got into some nettles and started itching,” Gatlin said. “Mark
decided to get into the creek
to get rid of the itch and we all jumped in.”
The portion of the creek where they went in was reported to be around 24 inches
to 30 inches deep.
“We were playing around and swimming. We got out to where it was a little deeper
and the current was
pushing us down to where it was six or seven feet deep,” the boy recalled.
“We floated down to where it was deeper and swam back to where it was shallow.
Josh, Clay and
myself, we all got to where it was shallow and we could touch.”
That’s when the fun turned tragic.
“One minute, we were laughing and having a good time. The next, all we heard
were gasps for air and
splashing in the water,” Gatlin said.
John Horner started getting tired against the current and his father was behind
him.
“John went under. Mark grabbed him, but John panicked. Mark would keep going
under every time
John went under,” Gatlin said.
The other boys started searching for a place they could stretch out to the pair
as they got closer to the
bank.
“Clay and I were knee deep where maybe we could get to them. John went under one
more time and
Mark, he must have pushed John up to us,” Gatlin said. “We grabbed him. When
Mark went under to
get Johnny, he never came back up.”
The son was in bad shape after the other boys got him on the bank. He was purple
around the lips and
eyes, taking shallow breaths and he had swallowed a large amount of water.
The boys carried him down the bank, then across the creek.
“We tried to take the Mule, but we couldn’t get it out of there. We had to get
Johnny out of there
because he was getting cold,” Gatlin said.
The boys carried him up the trail before he was able to walk. The first house
they reached was that of
Mark’s brother, John. A 911 call was placed, but divers were unable to find the
father until Sunday
morning.
That Horner died saving his son doesn’t surprise Standish or others.
“Not for a minute,” Standish said.
“He’s a hero,” Eastern athletic director Brad Wilson said of the man who coached
sixth-grade football
last fall. “He gave his life for his son. He did what any father would do for a
child. It’s just one of those
unfortunate things that happens.”
In addition to loving to work with kids, Standish said Horner was unique in that
he “had that special gift
and talent working with young people.”
“He thoroughly loved coaching and being around kids. You can’t learn that on
purpose. He related so
well to the kids,” the teacher and coach said. “Very few teachers and coaches
do. A lot of people get into
teaching and coaching, but not all of them have the gift and ability to make
that special connection with
a kid.
“The time commitment is huge and it requires a passion by a special kind of
person to work with kids.
Mark had that passion.”
Mark Horner only spent two months coaching Joe Lopez in eighth-grade wrestling,
yet, his father called
Horner “an important part of my son’s success.”
“Book smarts have never been a problem,” said Joe Lopez, the father. “Joe was
always a book nerd
growing up. In eighth grade, he comes home and tells me he wants to wrestle. I
asked why, and he said
it wasn’t being macho, but that there was a lot of strategy involved.
“Mark took this kid and guided him. He convinced him he was getting better and
better than he thought.
For five years, my son wrestled, and Mark was there at all the meets.”
Joe Lopez and Mike Horner, Mark’s oldest son, were teammates.
“Sitting in the stands, there are things you look at as a parent that you don’t
forget — the pat on the
head, the kind words,” the father said. “That’s what came flooding back when I
heard what happened.
It’s a loss for all of us.”
Now a junior at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, Joe Lopez was telling his
father at the end of his
freshman year of college how overwhelmed he felt.
“Then he said, ‘Dad, I just did 5 1/2 years of wrestling. I can’t quit.’ I told
Mark about that and said,
‘He’s not a quitter, and that’s a part of you,’” he said.
Standish will remember Horner for his nurturing and positive attitude.
“He was always so positive, so encouraging to the kids. He never demeaned them,”
he explained. “He
encouraged them to do their best, even when they didn’t do well. He never
berated them.
“Mark always found something positive to say before making a suggestion.”
Horner’s loss will be felt throughout Greentown, but nowhere more than among
those who work with
the youth of the community, Standish says.
“The whole community will suffer because we don’t have Mark. There is going to
be a big void,” he
said. “You can get people to coach, but you can’t always get ones instilling
long-term things, doing
more than teaching sports, but teaching about life, a good work ethic and being
a positive influence.”
Lopez had a simple description of Horner.
“He’s good people.”
John Dempsey may be contacted at (765) 854-6739 or by e-mail at
john.dempsey@kokomotribune.com
Copyright © 1999-2006 cnhi, inc.
Photos 
ALWAYS ENCOURAGING: Mark Horner talks to Connor Young while coaching first base for Sports Corner in a game Saturday morning. Photo provided by Tim Kenworthy
Story, photos and other info as provided by Kokomo
Tribune
http://www.kokomotribune.com
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