Mike Lang died April 16 after valiantly fighting metastatic adenocarcinoma with unknown primary for seven years.

He and his wife celebrated their 51st anniversary the day before on April 15. She and their four children were with him.

Mike was well known in the welding industry as he sold and worked with welding supplies for 48 years. He retired about two years after his cancer diagnosis and took up beekeeping, building up to three thriving hives. He brought to this new hobby the same love and work ethic he brought to all of his endeavors. He was actively working until his last week of life. Much as he loved his bees, he loved his family more. He was forever grateful to them, his many friends, and his great medical team.

He was a tenacious problem solver and a generous gift-giver. He had a great sense of humor that pain dampened a little but he still had a sense of humor even his last week in the hospital. He had a donor circle on his driver's license but was sad thinking that because of his cancer, he would not be able to donate his organs. What the Research Autopsy Center at Stanford gave Mike was one last future dream, a dream that fulfilled all he ever wanted to do throughout his life -- to be helpful.