Northern California Bluegrass Society

Mark Varner, the only person to edit both the NCBS and CBA membership publications and an active bluegrass musician and volunteer, died in his sleep on September 4 at his new retirement home in Belize. He was 64 years old.

The Everett, Washington native and longtime resident of Boulder Creek played mandolin and guitar with several active bluegrass bands, including The Sibling Brothers. He performed frequently at the Good Old Fashioned Bluegrass Festival during its early years, and at many other area bluegrass festivals and concerts.

He served on the Northern California Bluegrass Society Board of Directors and helped organize the GOF Festival, the Santa Cruz Bluegrass Fair, and other Society events. He presented The Otter Opry concert series in Santa Cruz and brought many fine touring bands to the area. He was also a proud “band parent” for his son Marty‘s youthful OMGG (“Obviously Minor Guys & A Girl”). He also hosted a regular bluegrass radio program on a Santa Cruz radio station.

When he was named editor, he added the “PDF” online version of the Society’s monthly Bluegrass By The Bay magazine — the first bluegrass publication of any kind ever to do so. Later, he took over and greatly upgraded the California Bluegrass Association’s Bluegrass Breakdown newspaper. Under his editorship, the CBA newspaper became the second bluegrass publication to issue an added “PDF” version. In addition to his editing efforts, he also wrote many articles for these publications.

Mark was eventually promoted to be the only paid Executive Director of the CBA, where he continued his newspaper publishing efforts, and also expanded and upgraded the program for the CBA Father’s Day Bluegrass Festival. He also served on the CBA Board of Directors and on the festival talent committee. He was one of the very few paid leaders of a bluegrass membership organization. His job lasted over a decade until the onset of the Coronavirus crisis forced CBA to eliminate the executive director position due to financial constraints.

Throughout his many years as a bluegrass musician and organizer, Mark maintained an engineering consulting practice designing and evaluating the air fluid systems in scuba equipment. He was a graduate of San Francisco State University.

After he retired from the CBA, Mark moved to the country of Belize, where he purchased a home and property in Dangriga. His time in Belize was spent with family. However, his plan to invite his bluegrass friends down for a tropical festival sadly did not come to pass.

Mark Scott Varner is survived by his son Marty Varner, daughter Veronica Varner, and wife Allison Varner, and by his brother Steven Varner and sister Martina Paris-Fully.