Mark Groendyk, left with his brother Stephen in an undated photo.
BLOOMFIELD, NJ — Boy Scout Troop 23 hosted a pancake breakfast Saturday, Jan. 21, at Bethany Presbyterian Church, on West Passaic Avenue. It was for a good cause that came from a tragedy.
The breakfast proceeds will be donated to a memorial scholarship at Bloomfield High School, that will be given in memory of 2008 BHS graduate Mark Groendyk. He was an Eagle Scout who had earned his badge by painting the interior of the Bloomfield Animal Shelter.
Groendyk was stabbed to death in August 2016, in Texas. He was 27. When he died, there were candlelight vigils for him in Boston; Cologne, Germany; and Athens, Texas. A civil engineer, his father Alan, who was at the pancake breakfast on Saturday, said his son built relationships wherever he went.
“He traveled around the world doing conservation and public works,” Alan said. “He built an irrigation system in Portugal and he worked in Thailand. He built a music school on Easter Island. It was completely self-sustaining.”
Groendyk attended Brookdale Elementary and Bloomfield Middle schools. He went on to study at Wentworth Institute of Technology, in Boston. He was working for Earthship Biotecture, a company headquartered in Taos, NM. The company constructs sustainable facilities.
“He died trying to help people,” Alan said. “At a party, he and his friends tried to stop a guy, intoxicated, from getting into his car. He stabbed Mark.”
According to the Aug. 6, 2016, Athens, Texas, police report, the suspect had told a woman outside the party that “he killed people for fun because he liked it.” He showed the woman about seven large knives that he had in the back of his vehicle and “spoke again of killing as well as killing that night.”
The report said that Groendyk tried to convince the suspect that he was too intoxicated to drive. To prevent the suspect from leaving, Groendyk reached into the car and took the keys from the ignition. The suspect became angry and demanded the keys. They were returned to him. The suspect then took a knife from the rear seat of his vehicle and confronted Groendyk and began stabbing him. Groendyk said he had been stabbed and the suspect drove away at a high rate of speed. According to a published report, the suspect is Jeremy Robert Lane, 25, of Athens, Texas. He was arrested and is currently in jail.
Alan said his son was not much into sports while at BHS; he played soccer his sophomore year. But he loved skateboarding and with a bunch of his skateboarding pals, built a “half-pipe” in the backyard. This is a concave construction that looks like a section of the hull of a ship. Skateboarders ride up and down its sides.
“It was concrete and cinder blocks,” Alan said. A thousand dollars of lumber. It was enormous. You can see it from Google Earth. We couldn’t sell the house with it. Not that we’re thinking of selling the house. We’re not.”
The half-pipe was in the backyard for 10 years. His mother, Jackie, would sometimes be asked why she would let such an enormous construction take up her backyard. She said her son and his friends loved skateboarding.
“The boys were skaters,” she said in a telephone interview this past weekend. “They skated all over town. When it was their sophomore summer, six of them decided to raise the money. It was huge. It took up most of the yard. It was a big part of his life.”
She said with her son and his friends out in the backyard with their skateboards, she knew where they were.
“They weren’t out drinking or doing drugs,” she said. “If you know your kids are safe and know what they’re doing, what more can you ask?”
She said she misses the half-pipe a lot. It was taken apart just last summer.
“They took it down in June,” she said. “All the guys were there. It was a celebration. They built a bonfire”
She said the flames must have gone up 12 feet; no one called the police.
“He went into engineering because of the half-pipe.” Jackie said. “He decided that’s what he wanted to do — build things. I didn’t know that until he got into college and told me. I knew he wanted to be an engineer but I didn’t know why.’
She said her son was in Athens, Texas, as the director of engineering for the construction of a labyrinth for the annual “Burning Man” art festival, in Nevada.
The last family vacation was in July 2016. Alan, Jackie, Mark, and his younger brother, Stephen, all got together in Colorado. Stephen is a BHS 2010 graduate.
Stephen is a medical student working in Cambodia.
“He too, like his brother, wants to save the world,” Alan said.
The scholarship will go to students who have done volunteer work to sustain the environment, Jackie said.
“Something to help make the world a better place,” she said. “I didn’t want to say more. I just want to keep his legacy alive. Unfortunately, the last time he helped someone, a stranger, but that was my son, such a good-hearted person that everyone loved.”
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