Mark LaPointe
2023 Sandra Sagear Wall of Courage Honoree
At the early age of 12 years old, Mark LaPointe experienced the tragic loss of his father. His father was ill from an accident. After Mark split his pants at OLGC school, the nuns sent him home to change his pants and that is where he found his father’s untimely fate. Emil LaPointe, his father, committed suicide in Marks bedroom.
He learned from this incident to try to be better at life. Being raised by a single parent was not the norm in 1963. Mark developed a tougher skin and had to grow up faster. Sports helped him to adjust to his new life. It kept him focused and gave him purpose. He knew he wanted to help kids (sometimes he is still 12 years old). That was the motivation to want to become a teacher and a coach.
He went on to play high school football at old Plymouth High School. Then to Eastern Michigan University and play football. He had the bug to become a coach and he did. Mark coached at different levels of football, baseball, volleyball, basketball, wrestling and swimming. This is the way he could give back to the community and help kids. When he stopped coaching, he became a baseball umpire and continued to help kids behind the plate.
Mark became “Mr. LaPointe” the physical education teacher at his old high school that became Central Middle School. We have heard numerous times from kids and adults over the years we would see on the street or in a store, they would say “Mr. LaPointe gave students life lessons as well as school lessons.” One Christmas season we were walking in the mall and we saw a man coming towards us. A little nervous about what was happening. This man said “are you Mr. LaPointe?” and Mark said yes. This gentleman said Mark was his substitute teacher… who remembers their substitute teachers from 20 years ago, he said “Mark had set him straight about his behavior and thanked him for doing that!”
Mark would open the gym up in the morning to students getting off the bus. Some kids would just come to school early before school started. He would let them play basketball or whatever the gym was setup for his lessons. When the10-minute bell would ring he would stand up and yell “TIME” and all the kids, maybe 100 or better, would all sit down with their legs crossed and were silent. The first time I saw this I said to Mark, “Who are you!” He would dismiss the students by grade and they left the gym in silence. He had their respect. I admired him on how he earned that respect too.
He has touched the lives of over 10,000 kids. We cannot go anywhere without someone stopping him to talk about the past. He always stops and listens and is very interested where they are in life.
In a newspaper clipping from decades ago, an unnamed philosophy major at UCLA was asked “How would you define success?” He said succinctly and simply put: “To succeed is to achieve one’s goal”
He quoted Ralph Waldo Emerson.
“To laugh often and love much; to win the respect of intelligent persons and the affection of children; to earn the approbation of honest citizens and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to give of one’s self; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation; to know even one life breathed easier because you have lived – this is to have succeeded”.
Mark “Mr.” LaPointe has endured grief, challenged by a divorce, driven to do his best to help children, good and those who also are challenged by their station in life, to do their best. Time and again he has achieved his goals to help kids and the kids to become adults.
Mark LaPointe is a special person!
Submitted by Sandy LaPointe, Mark’s wife