Date of Birth:
Monday, March 28, 1955
Date of Death:
Thursday, January 25, 2024
Age:
68 years old

Dr. Mark M. Bahn

Mark Mansfield Bahn, MD, PhD, 68, of Rochester, MN, died peacefully on January 25, 2024, at Cottagewood Senior Communities from complications of Parkinson’s Disease with Lewy Body Dementia. His care at Cottagewood was exceptional and he was surrounded by his family. Mark was a much-loved family man, a respected colleague, and loyal friend to many.

Mark was born to Dr. Robert and Miriam Bahn of Rochester, MN. He attended John Marshall High School, Carleton College, and the University of Minnesota Medical School. Mark and Lucy Rose Bahn (née Wiering) were married on September 17, 1983, in Minneapolis, MN. Their early years of marriage were spent between Los Angeles, Madison, and St. Louis, with a child born in each city.

Following an internship in internal medicine at the Mayo Clinic, Dr. Bahn entered graduate school in the Department of Biomathematics at UCLA where his research focused on mathematical modeling of dopamine kinetics using PET scans. After receiving his PhD in 1988, he completed a radiology residency at UCLA, followed by a neuroradiology fellowship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Bahn joined the faculty at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University in St. Louis in 1994, where his research focused on the development of clinical diagnostic techniques using diffusion tensor magnetic resonance. Further combining his expertise

in both biomathematics and neuroradiology, Dr. Bahn joined the neuroradiology faculty at Mayo Clinic in 2000. He was a superb clinician, able to deftly diagnose the most challenging of neuroradiology cases. He humbly and selflessly shared his expertise with colleagues and trainees. His research contributions at Mayo Clinic on MRI pulse sequence development and optimization, including MR spectroscopy, diffusion-weighted imaging and MR elastography, were seminal to the field. Due to his advancing illness, Dr. Bahn stepped back gracefully from his clinical and research responsibilities in 2009 and attained emeritus status at Mayo Clinic in 2020 as Associate Professor of Radiology.

Mark had a deep love of the outdoors and spent vacation time hiking, camping, and canoeing. He had a keen interest in the history of the Americas, and he spent his leisure time with maps and history books. As a youth, Mark was on the work crew at Camp Olson YMCA and, later, brought his family for work weekends and family camp to share his enjoyment of community and the “best fishing lakes in the state of Minnesota”. Mark also enjoyed sharing his love of strategy-based board games and computer games with his children. Despite his disability, Mark approached tasks and projects with good-natured enthusiasm. He maintained his wry sense of humor and was never at a loss for a well-timed dad joke.

Mark will be universally remembered for his unfailing kindness, dependability, and generosity of spirit.

Dr. Bahn was preceded in death by his parents and his brother David (Carla) Bahn. He is survived by his wife, Lucy, his children, Carl, Emily, and Jessica, sister, Dr. Rebecca (Dr. Michael Brennan) Bahn, and brother, Curtis (Tomie Hahn) Bahn.

The family prefers donations in Mark’s memory to Camp Olson YMCA in Longville, Minnesota.

A celebration of life will be held on March 1, 2024, at 5:30 PM at the Rochester Art Center.