Philanthropist, businessman Mark Sathe (Obituary)

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Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2007 22:32:54 -0400
Minneapolis Star Tribune, MN, USA
Sunday, October 07, 2007

Philanthropist, businessman Mark Sathe (Obituary)

By Ben Cohen, Star Tribune

Though legally blind and stricken with cancer, the St. Louis Park resident made 
it a priority to help others.

Last update: October 07, 2007 - 8:24 PM

Although legally blind since birth, St. Louis Park business owner Mark Sathe 
believed he was lucky.
Sathe, a hard-working civic volunteer and owner of Sathe Executive Search, died 
of malignant melanoma Tuesday in Brooklyn Center. The longtime St. Louis Park 
resident was 59.

Sathe attended the Minnesota State Academy for the Blind in Faribault. He grew 
up among adults who made their living helping people, said his wife, Ginny, of 
St. Louis Park. "They pushed him to be all he could be," she said. "He never 
felt like he was disadvantaged."

While growing up in Jackson, Minn., he learned to be a nurturing adult from his 
father, a funeral director, who taught him how to help people through difficult 
times.

The result was a life spent helping his employees, the needy and anyone who 
called. Over the years, he won many awards for his civic activism and 
philanthropy, including the Boy Scouts of America's highest honor for adults, 
the Silver Beaver Award, and several awards for volunteerism from the Twin West 
Chamber of Commerce, as well as its 1987 Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

He helped children at the Academy for the Blind, women who were former 
prisoners living in halfway housing in St. Louis Park, Boy Scouts with 
disabilities and a Marine veterans' organization helping the blind in Vietnam.

After graduating from St. Cloud State University, he founded his own company, 
Sathe Executive Search, in 1974.

Around 2000, he had malignant melanoma diagnosed. Over the next four years, he 
beat back the cancer. 

'No one is this generous'

Greg Albrecht of Eden Prairie, now a senior partner in Sathe's firm, recalled 
being a new employee and telling his wife, "No one is this generous, this nice, 
this positive."

Sathe started mornings at the office with, "'What can I do to help you?' And he 
meant it," Albrecht said.

In the past few years, Sathe transferred some ownership of the firm to his 
employees.

In 1996, he ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the Minnesota Senate.

Sathe, who could read and walk independently, could not drive but said he 
didn't mind.

In 1997, when he ran with a guiding buddy in Grandma's Marathon in Duluth, he 
fell a few times. He kept getting up until he finished, Albrecht said.

He was a scuba diver and golfer, and performed with barbershop-style singing 
groups.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by son Jonathan of St. Louis Park; 
daughter Katharine Goebel of Cambridge, Minn.; mother Ruth of Jackson, Minn.; 
brothers David of Mankato, John of Jackson and Stephen of Incline, Nev., and 
one grandson. 


Services will be held at 3 p.m. today at Westwood Lutheran Church, 9001 Cedar 
Lake Rd. S., St. Louis Park.


Ben Cohen . bcohen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 

     


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Philanthropist, businessman Mark Sathe (Obituary)

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