‘We’ll never really have answers’: Family mourns Palisades man lost in fire
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As a boy growing up in Leningrad, Mark Shterenberg developed a fascination with the way things worked — the challenge of taking them apart, the responsibility of putting them back together.
By the time Sputnik launched in 1957, he had already made up his mind that he would one day use his talents to send things to space. And once Shterenberg made up his mind about something, there was no getting him to change it.
As an engineer, he emigrated with his wife, Marina, and young daughter in 1980, determined to provide his family a life unhindered by the antisemitism he saw in the Soviet Union. They first moved to Chicago and then, in the mid-1980s, to Los Angeles.
“He was so smart, and so dedicated, and had such an amazing work ethic,” said his granddaughter Tatiana Bedi, 29, of San Francisco. “I don’t think he ever took a day of vacation. He got up every day and went to work building a life for his family.”
Shterenberg died at his home in the Palisades fire, his family said. He was 80.
Nic Libonati and his sister were sipping Turkish tea when they spotted and were the first to report the Palisades fire. His home is still in danger.
Shterenberg worked as an engineer for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Hughes Aerospace Corp., his family said.
In 1993, he and Marina purchased their home in Pacific Palisades. A former university wrestler, Shterenberg remained fit and strong well into his older years, still hauling himself up to his roof to make repairs over his family’s protests.
Every morning until the last day of his life, he rose at 5 a.m., ran three miles and then plunged into their pool, which was always unheated because Shterenberg did not believe in wasting money on foolish things like pool heating.
On the outside he could be gruff and bristly and unbelievably stubborn, Bedi said, “but on the inside, he was just the mushiest, most loving person. He loved his wife — my grandma — and my mom and my brother and I so much.”
Bedi’s grandmother had been ill in the days before the fire and was staying with Bedi’s mother, Maya Amans, at her home in Santa Monica.
When the Palisades fire broke out Jan. 7, Shterenberg texted his family shortly before noon that the flames were on a nearby street, Bedi said. Their frantic calls and texts asking him to evacuate went unanswered.
At 9:30 p.m., he texted his wife that their home was safe. Some two hours later, a neighbor got a message from him that flames were approaching, Bedi said. That was the last known communication from Shterenberg.
His family spent the next few desperate days calling hospitals and evacuation centers, hoping that he had managed to flee. On Jan. 11, they were notified that investigators found human remains in the rubble of his home, along with Shterenberg’s glasses, Bedi said.
“We don’t really know why he didn’t choose to evacuate,” Bedi said. “We’ll never really have answers about that. But in my heart, I feel like he was trying to protect everything that he built for his family here.”
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