Mark Swoyer, 71, passed away on Sunday morning, July 12, in the comfort of his living room.

For more than forty years, Mark called Watertown home. He was a union carpenter, Local 33, commuting by bicycle every day, year-round, through all four seasons. As a carpenter, he considered himself skilled but not exceptional. On a bicycle, he was divine. To ride behind him was to watch a master at work, neither fast nor slow. Just effortless.

In 1991, he began recording his miles with an odometer, a practice he continued through May of this year, when he took his last ride. The vast majority were commuter miles, through the traffic and bedlam of downtown Boston. But he was never knocked down by a car, and he never broke a bone.

112,729 miles. Nearly half the distance to the moon in thirty years. Before that, no records exist.

He was an avid reader, a political hound, and a man 'on the other side of every issue'. He refused the Vietnam draft, met his wife in jail after a protest, and hitchhiked with her to Guatemala. In Watertown, he bought a house, raised a son, and kept a pet catfish for 22 years.

That catfish, sadly, is gone. But Mark is survived by his wife, Carol, and son, Eric. He taught them lessons every day, right up to the end.

They are proud to have known him. Funeral Services and burial will be private.