Mr. Markum is the founder of Thunderstorm Robotics. He started recruiting kids from the Stillwater home school community in the spring of 2005. He held meetings every Thursday night until kickoff. In these meetings he spent hours teaching us basic principles of engineering and design: gear ratios, drive systems, X-Y coordinates, impromptu public speaking, and basic computer programming.

Mr. Markum's enthusiasm and genius inspired us throughout the building process. He took a team of inexperienced teenagers and taught them to be engineers, journalists, and researchers. Mr. Markum always taught by example. He came to the shop early, left late, and worked constantly. He put more time and energy into the robot than any other, teaching us to be enthusiastic and faithful in the process. He taught us to try new things, to explore the outer limits of ingenuity. When the local tech school didn't come through, he learned to weld and made the frame himself. He had a cheerful and optimistic attitude--a huge inspiration to his new, unsure team. He consistently maintained a soft-spoken and gracious demeanor. We knew that Mr. Markum would look at anything, explain anything, even when he was busy.

Mr. Markum matched his enthusiasm and dedication with reams of "3-AM" ideas: a three-gear drive unit without threaded fasteners, a housing for the transmission. This in turn inspired our own creative instincts--one such product was a central rotating conveyor system to retrieve balls from all sides of the robot.

During build season, he gave every student the opportunity to get his or her hands dirty. He taught us to use the milling machine, lathe, roller, welding torch, sandblaster, and bandsaw. Mr. Markum taught us to identify every kind of threaded fastener. Two sophomore students recently milled a pair of 65-tooth sprockets with minimal supervision, thanks to Mr. Markum's encouragement and instruction.

Mr. Markum also taught us the importance of safety. To impress this in our minds, he told us vivid stories of accidents he had witnessed. He reminded us to always take care--not only of our own safety, but also the safety of our teammates. He emphasized important safety rules: don't leave the chuck key in the lathe, keep your fingers clear of blades, wear earplugs and safety glasses in the shop.

Mr. Markum constructively forgave our mistakes, immediately showing us how to correct the errors. He never criticized--quite the opposite. He patiently and carefully helped us. He encouraged us to examine error and find a solution for ourselves, with a little help, if we needed it. Even better than that, he always trusted us to work on his machines.

From the beginning, Mr. Markum taught us positive character traits. One principle of his came out clearly in his speech and actions: winning the regionals in Houston is not a sufficient goal. In order for our technical prowess to mean something in the future, we had to be reliable people. By example he taught us good interpersonal relationships and dependability. He enforced a law of kindness within his workshop as well. He was the personification of gracious professionalism.

Mr. Markum inspired positive attitudes and excellence in all his students. Through his ceaseless energy, he instilled within us the value of hard work, safety, and quality in all areas of life. He understood that these were the most important values we could learn, and he consistently guided the way through the school year and build season. This made him, for us, an all-star mentor.