“Terribly sorry to hear that Mark is no longer with us.  Mark was both a friend and a great colleague to many of us.  His cheer, his kindness, and his invariable generosity to help our community will be deeply missed. ”

“Dear Andy,
Thanks for sharing; this is very sad news indeed. I’m very sorry to hear this. I’m sorry to you especially since you were close to Mark.

Again, I’m sorry for the sadness and this tragic loss.
All the best,”

“Dear Andy,
I’m very saddened after hearing Mark’s passing.  His contribution to the field is extraordinary, yet his humble demeanor, like what you described, also earns the highest respect and admiration from many scientific colleagues.  Mark will be missed by many.”

“Hi Andy, 
Yes, I got the sad news. I remember him as an outstanding scientist and a warm and friendly person, always ready to help. I am in awe of the beautiful lab books he wrote.”

“Thanks, Andy. So sad. I will share a story that I told Art yesterday. One of my first papers was the gradient sensitivity enhanced JACs paper that followed directly from Mark’s work. I am sure that Mark thought of it too. I sent it off to JACS (my first independent JACS paper) and it came back with 3 reviews. Two called for rejection on the grounds that it is not possible to use gradients and get something extra, yet one was very supportive. I am pretty sure that the supportive one was Mark. Remarkably, Sunny accepted the paper (would never have happened today) and I got tenure! So, I have always been incredibly grateful to Mark. A gentle giant in our field.
All the best,”

“The 2-D DQF COSY is, to my own personal taste, the most elegant of all NMR pulse programs.  It was absolutely crucial to the success of my postdoctoral studies on oriented sample NMR.”

“Mark was just an awesome human being.
… While Mark was brilliant scientifically and a great colleague and friend, one of his lesser-known flaws and source of great entertainment to us, was his complete and total ineptitude at playing practical jokes. At the time, there many people in the lab (Claudio Dalvit and John Cavanagh come to mind) who could walk up to Mark and tell him with a straight face that his car was being towed or that the console was on fire. But when he tried to turn the tables on us he would just get flustered and break down laughing and then get really annoyed that he couldn’t pull it off. Happened every single time. And still makes me smile thinking about it.”

“As grad students, Mark and I overlapped for just over a year in Ken Jeffrey’s lab. Aside from Mark’s considerable skills across the board (experiments, theory, programming, ..), what impressed me the most was his ability to think very deeply about NMR. He was truly a unique talent. 

…I never understood why Mark couldn’t find a job in Canada. He did tell me once that he had applied to UBC, but they told him he was too old! Over 40! ”

“Andy,
Although I learned of Mark’s critical illness early in the spring, the news of his passing was nevertheless shocking and heartbreaking. Thanks to Andy, Walter, and Art for writing a tribute that captured both Mark’s brilliance and his manner of quiet grace. I too have some terrific Rance memories: a tour-de-force instrument proposal I fought for successfully on an NIH panel, my Big Sky Keystone Conference cross country ski misadventure shared with Mark and Art, his pithy counterpoints to Ad and Kurt when the three of them came in as consultants for the first New York Structural Biology Center purchases, and Mark’s improbably deep voice. Though he is gone from our midst, these vivid personal and professional memories of Mark Rance will surely endure. Best, Ruth”

“Dear Andy,
Very sad to hear this news.  I met and interacted with Mark in 1980 while I was on sabbatical with Colin Fyfe and Ken Jeffrey at Guelph.  Mark and I had many conversations about “what to do in life” after the Ph.D..  It was obvious that Mark was very bright and I was happy to watch him mature into a highly respected scientist.  I am very sorry to hear this news Andy.
Very best wishes,
Rod”

“Andy - really sad news. I guess none of us are immortal, but he was a sweet guy. Damn 
Jody”

“Thanks, Andy for this very thoughtful obituary.  My condolences to you especially.  I never met Mark in person but of course, knew of his very important work.  It is fascinating to see all the interpersonal connections that are so important to make progress in science. 
Chad”

“Walter, 

I just heard from the AMMRL network the painful news that Mark Rance passed away.  This was both unexpected and tragic.  Although I lost track of Mark in recent years, I remember my time working with him at Scripps fondly.  He taught me a huge amount about NMR (and physics!) about which as an organic chemist I was pretty clueless.  Please let me know if there is going to be any kind of memorial.

 Tom Pochapsky
”