Brooks: Mark Hortman’s life remembered by the kids who loved him

“Her husband,” they called Mark Hortman in every story, every broadcast about the tragedy.

It was an introduction he might not have minded. He took such joy in being Melissa Hortman’s husband, being Colin and Sophie’s father, being the guy with a golden retriever who knew how to ring the doorbell.

He was her husband, and he was so much more.

People smile when they talk about him. Even now, when the pain of his loss is almost too much to bear, the ones who loved him best laugh when they swap stories of his adventures, his dad jokes and all the hobbies he threw himself into with his entire heart. Mountain biking. Competitive pool. Home beer brewing. Woodworking. His sourdough starter that still sits in the refrigerator.

All the stories publicized about him now are horror stories. The killer in the night, gunning for a name on a list and annihilating half a family. Melissa. Mark. Even Gilbert, their dog.

That won’t be how they’re remembered, how he’s remembered. We won’t let it be.

Remember Mark Hortman bombing down a bike trail on the Iron Range, trying to catch up to his son.

“He loved mountain biking so much,” said Colin Hortman, 30, who joined in many of his father’s adventures, from biking through Moab, Utah, to scuba diving in Caribbean crystal seas 45 feet under Cozumel. So many happy memories, with his dad at the heart of them all.

“Mom wanted to ride her bike on paved trails. She got an electric bike to keep up with my dad on his road bike,” he said. “My dad, honestly, could beat me up going uphill, because he treated it like a workout. But, he also had fun with it.”

One of the memories Sophie, 28, holds tight is a road trip with her father as he drove her home after her freshman year at the University of Colorado Boulder. Unfazed by rainstorms, they huddled in a tiny camping cabin at a KOA campground in Rocky Mountain National Park “listening to weird, eclectic indie music, cooking hot dogs over the fire pit, staying up late talking under the stars, and enjoying being back together after the school year.”

“He was so immensely funny and joyful, and loved being in beautiful natural places,” she wrote in an email. “We had the best time.”

Remember the Mark Hortman who played poker with his neighbors on Windsor Terrace or leaned over a pool table, lining up a shot. Remember him by his wife’s side through two failed campaigns and all the successful ones that followed on her ascent to speaker of the Minnesota House.

Remember how he never let go of a good dad joke. Every time his book-loving daughter forgot to return a book to the library on time, an automated message system would ring the Hortman home and mangle the name of Sophie K. Hortman.

“Sof eye Kuh Hortman!” her father would repeat loudly, a big smile on his face, every time he saw her, robocall or no robocall. It never got old. “Sof eye Kuh Hortman!”

“He was an inquisitive-minded, adventurous person,” said Linda Haluptzok, Melissa’s mother. “His latest deal was mountain biking, which kind of drove his wife crazy.”

For years, he helped run the Haluptzok family business, John’s Auto Parts, in Blaine. More recently, he worked as a program manager at the tech firm nVent in St. Louis Park.

“He was creative and adventurous. A dedicated family man. Always smiling, always laughing, always positive,” his mother-in-law said. “We were so, so lucky to have him.”

Melissa and Mark met more than three decades ago in Washington, D.C. Melissa was there on a political internship, her mother remembers. Mark was working for IBM. One night, both showed up to volunteer as mentors at a local school. They were matched to the same student.

Three months later, they were engaged.

“My sister’s success in her career was entirely because he was so supportive and flexible in helping her, especially in the beginning,” said Melissa’s brother, Patrick Haluptzok.

If he needed to reach Melissa, he’d call Mark. Her phone was constantly buzzing with legislative business. His was the Hortman hotline.

“I think it was true for the whole family. We always call Mark,” Patrick Haluptzok said. “I called Mark just by habit. Often times, she’d be working late and I’d call Mark, just to talk.”

For more than half their lives, the Hortmans were a team.

“Happy 31st Anniversary, Mark Hortman!” Melissa posted on Facebook last Aug. 13th. “Isn’t it romantic to mow the grass & wait for primary results? So glad to be together, whether we’re chasing waterfalls in Scotland or right here on the couch.”

“It was that way with so many, many things in their lives,” said Linda Haluptzok. “They just focused on one another and work together and work on the same things. Their house, their yard, training Minnie [the first service dog they raised]. They were focused and loving.”

Colin and Sophie Hortman have been holding up the best they can. They lost their father a day before Father’s Day. In the days after their parents’ murders, they have been surrounded by other family, trying to plan two funerals.

The siblings debated whether to slip a pool cue or a bike gear into their father’s coffin. They crafted a list of ways Minnesotans could remember their parents. Plant a tree. Pet a dog. Enjoy a bike path. Try a new hobby. Stand up for what you believe in.

The family has started a GoFundMe to help Colin and Sophie Hortman with the financial burdens that accompanied their staggering loss. As of Tuesday evening, there had been more than $110,000 in donations to help them repair bullet holes and physical damage to the family home, or just to let them know that someone else out there remembers too.