Jonathan S. Markle

Jonathan (Jon) Stephen Markle, 44, passed away peacefully at home with his family by his side on the morning of December 9, 2022. He was born on August 3, 1978 and grew up in Harrisburg, PA. Grateful for the neighborhood he lived in, Jon was happy to be a child before the rise of the internet. He and neighborhood children played outside for hours on end, no matter the season. In 1996, he graduated from Susquehanna High School along with his two life-long best friends from middle school, Peter and Andy.

Following high school, Jon lived in a variety of places as he both worked and continued his education. He received his Bachelor’s Degree in History from James Madison University and worked as a surveyor and Habitat for Humanity supervisor while living in VA. From there, he moved to Buffalo, NY to complete a Master’s Degree in History at SUNY Buffalo and did deconstruction work for Buffalo ReUse. In 2010, Jon was honored to become a Regent’s Intern Fellow at the University of California Berkley and relocated to Oakland, CA to pursue additional graduate work in Urban Geography. He would go on to teach in public education in CA before moving to SC in 2017 where he began a private tutoring and test prep service for the Bluffton and Hilton Head area. He became close with many of his tutoring students and their families, and it always put a smile on his face to hear about their accomplishments.

Jon was a passionate educator, geographer, poet, writer, historian and builder of homes for disadvantaged families. He loved music and playing the guitar, professional wrestling, fishing, hiking, California weather, Calvin and Hobbes comics, playing cards, having cook-outs with his family and friends and staying in close contact with the people he loved. He was also a connoisseur of global cuisine as well as a good cook himself. We will always remember him as a “gentle giant” - both for his height and the size of his heart - as well as his contagious laugh and wonderful sense of humor.

Jon is deeply loved and will be greatly missed by his family: father, William Gary, and his mother Margita; sister Elisabeth; brother Jeffrey, sister-in-law Shari and nephew Tyler. In addition, he leaves behind a number of close friends around the country who Jon considered to be an extension of his family.

Service/burial plans will not be decided until after the new year.

If you would like to honor Jon’s memory, we ask that you contribute to or volunteer with your local Habitat for Humanity organization. After his years of seeing much homelessness in the cities where he lived, Jon used to say that, no matter where he was living or the size of the space, he just always wanted it to feel like a home. He believed that “everyone deserves a place to call home.”

Habitat for Humanity Hilton Head
PO Box 2747, Bluffton SC 29910
Web: http://www.lowcountryhabitat.org