Mark Madison, Portland High School Class of 1969, is a traveling man. He’s been all over the world, first with the Navy as a young man and then with wife over the course of their 54-year marriage. Just ask and he'll rattle off a list of countries he’s visited like it’s no big deal—Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Cambodia, Thailand—and the list goes on. He recently hiked the Inca Trail in Peru with his daughter.

Mark Madison, Portland High School Class of 1969, atop a mountain in Peru

The thing he’s most happy to talk about, though, is sports. Madison loves sports, and always has. He’s coached basketball, football, and softball, the last of which he helped establish in Portland and has coached for more than 50 years.

“I like coaching kids because when I was growing up, I loved sports, but there were so many people playing that I got cut because of my size,” he said.

For his decades-long commitment to service, students, and athletics, the faculty and staff at Portland High School have chosen to present Madison with the 2026 Distinguished Alumni Award.

Portland High had a big impact on Madison’s life. His teachers were his role models, he said. He and his wife were high school sweethearts, too.

“I was a junior, she was a sophomore,” he said. “We’ve been together a long time.”

Madison enlisted in the Navy after graduation. He trained at Guantanamo Bay and then toured the Mediterranean. He worked on an oil supply and ammunition ship, refueling carriers and other vessels. His ship was so large that it couldn’t go through the Suez Canal, so had to go around Africa to make it to Southeast Asia. The trip made him an Emerald Shellback, a rare distinction for sailors who cross the Equator at the Prime Meridian in the Gulf of Guinea. He doesn’t talk much about his service abroad.

“Most people that know me don’t know I was in Vietnam,” he said. “I don’t tell them.”

He worked at Nappi’s Bakery after leaving the Navy. It was while working at Nappi’s that he helped start up softball and began coaching.

“We started coaching softball when there was no girls’ softball in the state of Maine,” he said.

The support from the community was incredible. Local business owners chipped in to cover whatever they needed to get it up and running—equipment, bases, uniforms, and more.

Madison coached basketball and football for years as well, but eventually had to step back from those. He referees those sports now, and continues to coach softball too. Sometimes, the number of years he’s coached surprises even him.

“I had one kid come over a couple years ago, and I said ‘I coached your father,’” he said. “She said ‘No, coach, that’s my grandfather.’ I couldn’t believe it. I coached her grandfather when he was in the sixth grade!”

His experience at Nappi’s eventually led him to a job at the Portland Public Schools Central Kitchen, where he made bread, rolls, pizza shells, and desserts—all from scratch. He left there in the 90s and became a custodian at Presumpscot Elementary School before heading to Rowe Elementary School as head custodian, where he still works today. All the while, he continued coaching. He’s seen some big changes in kids along the way, he said. It was taken for granted when he started coaching that families had a stay-at-home parent. Now, he feels like coaches and the teachers see more of the kids.

“Elementary schools didn’t have lunches or buses because there were so many elementary schools in Portland all within a mile of home,” he said. “Kids had time to walk home and get lunch. Now, both parents have to work. Teachers and coaches, they see their kids more than some parents do. Parents are working crazy just to have a house!”

He’s stayed in touch with many of his former players from his long coaching career. He was proud to say what they went on to become: a Top Gun instructor, business owners, CEOs, professors, coaches, and more.

“I am blessed to know these people because they became unbelievable human beings,” he said. “They’re such a benefit for society and this whole world. I could go on forever. These are exceptional people.”