He graduated from Villanova University in Villanova, Pennsylvania, in 1955 and later served in the United States Navy from 1955 to 1958. He graduated from Georgetown University Law School in Washington, D.C., in 1960. He then worked as a law clerk for Chief Judge Harvey Johnson at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit before returning to Fort Dodge where he worked in private practice from 1961 to 1968.

He served as assistant Webster County attorney from 1963 to 1966.

In 1968, McCormick was appointed as a judge of the Iowa District Court and served in this capacity until joining the Iowa Supreme Court in 1972, where he served until 1986.

McCormick narrowly lost the Democratic primary for governor in 1998 to Tom Vilsack, who went on to win the election.

Mark McCormick

“I’m saddened to hear of his passing,” said Kurt Wilke, retired chief judge of Iowa’s Second Judicial District, who had known McCormick since 1972. “He was just a great individual all around. He’d help you out in every way, shape, and form.

“When I first met him, I had finished my first year of law school and I was in Fort Dodge working as a law clerk for a local law firm,” he added.”I went to the law library in the courthouse to work on a project and got up there and here was this man sitting there doing work on his own. I tried to find various things that I needed, and I finally said to the man ‘Could you tell me where I could find’ what I needed? He said ‘oh sure.’ Pretty soon I had not one book, but a stack of books opened to pages that dealt with my subject. I thought he was a great guy and a great lawyer. Then Tom Price, a local attorney, came in and said to him ‘How are you today Justice McCormick?’ and I realized that the man helping me was on the Supreme Court. But that’s just the way that he was. He was extremely helpful and just a great jurist and a great man.”

“Think of a legal issue, and there is a Mark McCormick opinion that got to the heart of the matter. I can’t remember ever disagreeing with anything he wrote,” added Justice Edward Mansfield. “But Mark really lives on for me as a colleague in the practice of law. Mark was so smart. While the rest of us in the firm had to think out loud, and muddle our way to a legal recommendation for the client, for Mark practicing law was just a matter of instincts and intellect. His services were a terrific bargain for the client because he could do things so quickly and so well. No ‘trial and error’ for him; just a brief and successful trial without error.”

“Over the years, Mark and I worked on many cases together, including several trials,” said Justice Matthew McDermott. “He never micromanaged. He never acted like he knew better. Even when I was a young lawyer, he never made me feel like anything less than an equal. Mark was routinely sought out to handle complicated, high-stakes cases. But if he ever felt stressed, he never showed it, and he certainly never cast that stress on the people he worked with. His default demeanor was gracious and calm.”

A visitation for McCormick is scheduled for 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Friday at Iles Dunn’s Chapel, 2121 Grand Ave., in Des Moines. The funeral service will take place at 11 a.m. Saturday, at St. Theresa of the Child Jesus Catholic Church, 1230 Merle Hay Road, Des Moines. McCormick’s family also plans to host a celebration of life in mid-June.