Marcus Daniel Fosket, 78, of Mountain View, CA passed away on Sept. 3, 2018 from the effects of frontotemporal dementia and ALS.

Mark was born on Sept. 26, 1939 in St. Paul, MN and lived a majority of his life in the Bay Area where he graduated from Mt. Diablo High School. After serving four years in the United States Air Force, he worked for the Bell Telephone Company out of El Sobrante.

Like every good Silicon Valley story, though, Mark decided to start his own business in his garage: designing and building calculators, digital roulette wheels and clocks. Evidence of his true genius lies in the fact that he never went to school for electrical engineering—he was completely self-taught in an era before Google and You Tube. Ultimately, he and his second wife built Digital Displays–their clock business–into the nation’s top producer and provided time systems for numerous movies and t.v. shows, the Pentagon, Bethesda Medical Center, and the White House Situation Room.

He is survived by his two sisters, Diane Simpson and Marlys Silva; nephews Greg Peterson, Doug Peterson, Jason Silva, and niece Shannon Bueno; his daughter, Michele Paolini, son-in-law, Massimo Paolini, and grandson, Mariano; as well as the love of his life, Darlene Fosket.

Services will be held on Friday, Sept. 21 at 1:00 at Sunset View Cemetery, 101 Colusa Ave., El Cerrito.

In lieu of flowers, the family encourages donations to be made to the Alzheimer’s Foundation (alzfdn.org‎) or the ALS Association (alsa.org)