The entire community of Tyrone suffered a tremendous loss last week when God called Mark Westley home. Everyone who knew Mark knew that he was a very, very special person-one who did so much for Tyrone.
Mark was active in wrestling for as long as was possible and then some. He was a district champ in high school and the Lord enabled him to be around long enough to see his son become a district wrestling and golf champ.
Westley gave to the Tyrone community in many ways, only a few of which we attempt to mention here. Mark was a wrestling official as well as a radio commentator on the local WTRN radio station and others for local wrestling matches at Tyrone and during inseason and postseason tournaments. Mark was the District VI Wrestling Historian, and always managed to get the newest edition of the Tyrone and District VI wrestling booklets to us and to so many others, who always counted on getting the information from Mark. Many times when we needed some fact about wrestling, it was to Mark that we would go to find the answer.
He won honors for his work in wrestling, but the true value of the man wasn’t in the honors he received, but in the love and concern he always showed for the youth of Tyrone.
First diagnosed with colon cancer in 200 and undergoing treatments, Westley was told the cancer was gone. It came back three years later and Westley was told in March 2004 that he had four to six weeks to live.
Westley was a loving husband and father who diligently worked to support his family for as long as health would allow him.
To many of us who knew what he was facing and the manner in which he battled, Mark Westley was a hero. Mark fought the long hard fight against cancer, and as a wrestler always realizes, life is not without trials and setbacks. Mark Westley only lost at the end, because he ran out of time. The whistle blew ending the final overtime period of his match with life.
