GILFORD ---- Mark Petit Mason passed away on Friday, August 21, 2026, at 5:35pm surrounded by his loving wife, stepchildren, son-in-law, and grandson.
A proud Michigander, Mark was born on November 1, 1946, in Detroit and raised in Jackson, MI. It was there, out behind his parents’ home on Brown’s Lake, where Mark’s passion for all things boating was ignited when he and his older brother Tom first ripped across the lake in the little wooden racer Seaducer. In that moment, a passion would never be extinguished and would determine the rest of his life.
In 1976, Mark made the discovery of a lifetime in a scrap dealer’s backyard, the legendary speedboat Baby Bootlegger. With his considerable knowledge, wit, and utter devotion, Mark revived Bootlegger into the legend it is to this day. From that moment on, after a brief (and boring!) stint as an insurance salesman, Mark began the career that would seal his legacy.
The founder of New England Boat & Motor of Laconia, New Hampshire, Mark’s shop was filled with incredible treasures. He had customers from all over the world, as far away as Australia and as close as right across the lake from his beloved Hiawatha boathouse at Smith’s Cove on Lake Winnipesaukee. Every day, you can see evidence of Mark’s craftsmanship, with dozens of his and customers’ boats hurtling across the lake. You could also find him joyously behind the wheel of one of his (many) boats, with his wife Bonnie by his side. If you were lucky, Mark would do a drive-by and honk the boat’s horn, greeting you with a fleeting wave as he roared onto the next place.
Mark was a proud Army veteran, serving in South Korea during the Vietnam era. He liked to joke that he was ‘Radar’ from M*A*S*H, though really, he’d been a secret document courier. Press him about his service, though, and he’d just as readily confess that, really, he’d been the French ambassador’s private waterski coach.
Mark married later in life and did not have any children of his own, yet he readily embraced Bonnie’s two children, Krysten Weber and her husband David Dunn, and Donald Weber, as if they were his own. He was the proud grandfather of Clayton Dunn, who’d shadow Mark “at the shop” and in the soggy hatches of Impshi and Curtiss Wilgold III and Sultana and so many more. Clayton was his little buddy, the apple of his eye. Mark loved his boats, but he loved his wife and his family most. He was spectacular in all ways: a spectacular husband, (step)father, and grandfather; a spectacular raconteur; a spectacular historian; a spectacular presence whose very vitality gave those in his orbit the gift of his beautiful eccentricities. He was a friend to many — more than many.
Mark was an organ donor. Because of this gracious and generous gift, his right kidney and liver were able to save the lives of two people; his presence continues in flesh and blood and wood and gas and grease. He always joked he wanted his ashes blown through the carburetor of one of his boat’s engines. We might make that happen.
While Mark faced a tragic end, he was surrounded by his family as he took his very last breath; a tiny, mischievous, grin crept across his face as he passed on into the universe of wooden boats. He’ll always be happy knowing all of you, as much as we are in knowing him. May you forever be behind the steering wheel of a wooden boat with the horizon endlessly unfurling in front of you.
A memorial service will be held at a later date.
Wilkinson-Beane-Simoneau-Paquette Funeral Home & Cremation Service s/ 603Cremations.com, 164 Pleasant St., Laconia, NH, 03246, is assisting the family with arrangements. For more information and to view an online memorial, please visit wilkinsonbeane.com.