Dcn. Mark O'Loughlin

As a child, Mark O’Loughlin was so fascinated with space that he learned everything he could about NASA’s missions and astronauts.

“Growing up watching videos from the moon, I was a walking encyclopedia of the space program,” he said. 

That childhood enthusiasm diminished over the years, but the interest in what lies beyond our atmosphere remained.

O’Loughlin studied physics at Ohio State and later, while working at Battelle as a technician, he found himself programming software and control systems for Battelle’s laser lab. That work led to a position designing and installing laser systems with another company, which had him flying to Germany and China to work with customers.

“In China, the grad students I worked with were expected to speak English, so they wanted to practice and speak English with me,” he said. “Coaching them was a lot of fun. They would make presentations and ask about specific words.”

At about that time, a homily on the diaconate caught his attention. It sat in the back of his head for a while.

“I called Deacon Frank (Iannarino, director of the diocesan Office of the Diaconate) a few times over the next few years,” he said. “After a few calls, I said, ‘I don’t know if I’m being called,’ and Deacon Frank said, ‘Yes, but you keep calling me, so there’s probably something there.’”

O’Loughlin who has been married to his wife, Jane, for 31 years, began studying for the diaconate, adding it to his already-busy work schedule. He also is a fireworks exhibitor, running the Hilliard July 4 fireworks show.

An occasional red-eye flight from the West Coast had him arriving in just enough time to get home, shower and get to the Pontifical College Josephinum in time for diaconate classes on Saturdays.

“It’s been interesting how things have worked together,” he said. “Things have just happened in a way so that becoming a deacon was supposed to happen. When you’re in China, you never know when you’ll have a connection to the States and can’t even get a phone call through sometimes. There was a time when I had a paper due and I had no connection to be able to send the paper until about 10 minutes before it was due. All of a sudden, it went through. Somebody up there has been watching over me.”

Looking to the sky remains an interest for O’Loughlin. This summer, he added an interest in astral photography, capturing images of Comet Neowise.

“As I learned more and more about physics and how things worked, it became more apparent that this all didn’t happen by random. There’s a plan,” he said. “You have to see God when you study physics. You have to understand that there’s something behind it all, to think about what it takes for the earth to spin and be the right distance from the sun for the plants to grow. We don’t burn up and we don’t freeze. It all didn’t happen by random.”