Mark Laesch: Memories of what helped set him apart

To the golf community at large and his friends, Mark Laesch was the Golfstat innovator who for 30 years elevated the college game’s programs and players onto a sophisticated statistical level that up to that point had only been a dream. To me, however, when I thought of Mark Laesch, milk came to mind.

I mean that as a compliment, as you’ll see. I lived in the same hometown as Mark’s and went to the same parochial grade school and church in Bloomington, Illinois, smack dab in the middle of the state in McLean County, the state’s largest county in size and in the heart of corn country.

The Laesch family had an extensive presence in the area due to its business: Laesch Dairy. For decades Laesch milk was the Hood, Sealtest, Borden, Dean, whatever dairy company you can think of giant in the community. They dominated the home-delivery market, including my family’s house. The dairyman would put four glass gallon containers (three white, one chocolate) in an insulated metal box on the front porch each week. When you emptied a gallon, you’d rinse it out and put it back in the box for the deliveryman to take back to the dairy on his next trip.

Laesch milk was awesome. I grew up on Vitamin D for years, and loved the chocolate, it didn’t last a full week for our family of six. Laesch Dairy eventually opened stand-alone stores called Laesch Dairy Barns, and home delivery service slowly faded as people went out and shopped for their milk. Mark oversaw the business in the early 1980s, but Laesch Dairy was bought in 1998. By then, Mark was well into his stat-driven business, having started it in 1984, the year I left Illinois for Connecticut.

The coverage of Mark Laesch’s final months of battling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which ended with his death last Saturday at age 62, properly celebrated his role in college golf. It’s credit he richly deserved to see before his passing. But even more impressive was his testimony of faith, an unequivocal, lock-solid belief in God and what his death would mean for him.

The foundation for this faith came from Trinity Lutheran Church and School (K-through-eighth grade school). The extensive Laesch clan members were faithful and fervent, led by Mark’s father, Daniel, who you could see taught his family to be energetic and engaged. (I recall Mr. Laesch coming up to me after an eighth-grade talent-show skit and telling me I had a good voice for radio. As things have turned out all these years later, some would say I was dumb for not taking that advice.)

Mark was five years older than me going through TLS but my older brothers were around his age and I recall Mark’s great aptitude for all sports, which took him to Indiana University to play baseball. Mark’s father served on many boards, but he took time to play golf, a popular sport in a great golfing hotbed town of Bloomington.

As a man who grew up with a strong, successful father figure who lived his faith—and played golf—it isn’t a total surprise Mark Laesch accomplished what he did. He liked some of his father’s quotes: “If you don’t have conflict, you’re running from it. Conflict is the best way to grow.” And, quoting Thomas Edison, “If there’s a better way to do it, find it.” When Mark remarked about change, “Sort of sad, isn’t it, Dad?”, the older man said, “No, it’s progress.”

In the end, Mark Laesch was quotable too, delivering as powerful a statement as you could get from someone dealt a horrific fate: “I happen to believe that the instant we die is probably the single greatest moment of our life.”

He had great faith in where he was going after a life in which he delivered to all who knew him the milk of human kindness.