Mark Foutch, Former Mayor (2004-2007)
Term of Office
Mayor: 01/01/2004 - 12/31/2007
Councilmember: 1992-2003
Biographical Information
Born in an Army camp hospital in Tennessee in 1941, Mark spent his childhood in Springfield and Decatur, Illinois and his teen years in San Mateo and Sunnyvale, California. He graduated from San Jose State College in 1963 with a BA in journalism and an Air Force officer's commission.
He was stationed in California, Texas, Thailand, Oklahoma, Washington State, England, and Washington, D.C., usually as a public affairs officer. In his last assignment, he supervised the Pentagon newsroom for the Office of the Secretary of Defense. The Air Force sponsored him for graduate work at Boston University and a master's degree at Oklahoma U.
Familiar with this area after an earlier assignment at McChord AFB, he and his first wife, Roberta, moved to Olympia after retirement in 1985. The couple separated in 1998.
Mark was president of the Eastside Neighborhood Association from 1988-90 and headed the local chapter of The Retired Officers Association, 1990-91. He co-chaired the Olympia Swimming Pool bond campaign in 1988, and ran for Thurston County Freeholder in the Home Rule Charter campaign, 1989-90. Elected to the City Council in 1991, he took office in January, 1992.
Mark always engaged in issues and activities that affect Olympia but which take place beyond the City limits. Mark served 12 years on the Thurston Regional Planning Council (including three years as Chair) and 11 years on the Puget Sound Regional Council Transportation Policy Board. He was an early policy influence and later served as Co-Chair for Washington State on the Cascadia Project, a Seattle-based group advocating for tourism, trade, multimodal transportation improvements and sustainable communities in Washington, Oregon and British Columbia.
Mark was the first Mayor of Olympia elected as President of the Association of Washington Cities (2005-06) While Mayor, he served on two Governor-appointed statewide panels and another appointed by a State agency director.
As a member of the Olympia City Council, Mark chaired the special Council committee formed in 1998 that recommended improvements in leadership, training, accountability and communication in the Olympia Police Department. He served on all three City Council standing committees (General Government, Land Use and Environment, Finance)
Mark and his second wife, Janet Charles, were married June 3, 200l, and live in the historic Lybarger House on Boundary Street in Olympia's old Eastside neighborhood. He has two sons and four granddaughters from his first marriage, and gained two grown stepdaughters and two grandsons by his second marriage.