Mark Runyan

Mark Runyan, 67, passed away Tuesday, July 14, 2026, at his home in Bismarck.

A Funeral Service will be held at 1:00PM, Thursday, July 23rd at Bismarck Funeral Home. Visitation will be the hour prior to the service. Burial will be at Stewartsdale Cemetery, rural Bismarck.

Mark was born to Warren and Elenor Runyan on January 26, 1959 in Jamestown, ND. He grew up and went to school in Mandan and spent his youth hunting upland game, waterfowl and white-tailed deer with his dad. These hunts were honing his tracking, hunting and wildlife knowledge for his later career and life.

Mark graduated from Mandan High School and received his commercial art degree from BSC in 1994. Mark used these skills to create many painting and photographs of wildlife.

He worked building many power plants and pipeline jobs across the state, developed film at Bobs Photo and was a professional trapper for Delta Waterfowl.

Runyans Animal Nuisance and BAT Control was Marks labor of love. Mark loved giving a wild animal a second chance after a human moved into their territory. Mosquito eating bats weren’t killed, they were caught or excluded and then Mark expertly bat proofed the home and always gave his famous lifetime guarantee. Mark was also an expert at removing an excited skunk from many homes, garages and barns alive without them spraying, leaving many happy customers. Like all good trappers and hunters, Mark loved animals and enjoyed watching and learning from them. Mark knew the importance of bats and nursed many injured bats back to health to be released to continue catching mosquitoes.

He had a love of educating children on wildlife and enjoyed passing his knowledge on to future generations.

Mark had two special black labs in his life, Ace and Duece. The time he spent training gave them almost human qualities and they had many great hunting memories. When archery season came Mark seldom missed a day, below zero weather didn’t stop Mark or his custom made 60# sky recurve bow. Marks memorable catches where a swift fox, 2 beaver in 1 trap, 175 skunks in one year, a 750 yard shot on a coyote and outsmarting many wiley coyotes that were eating ranchers calves.

Mark sends a special thank you to his friends and many customers who helped him as the old saying go “Livin’ the Dream.”

Mark is survived by his sisters, Sandy and Diane.

To share memories with the family and sign the online guestbook, go to www.bismarckfuneralhome.com