Colin and Sophie Hortman remember their father, Mark Hortman

“Mom wanted to ride her bike on paved trails. She got an electric bike to keep up with my dad on his road bike,” he said. “My dad, honestly, could beat me up going uphill, because he treated it like a workout. But, he also had fun with it.”

One of the memories Sophie, 28, holds tight is a road trip with her father as he drove her home after her freshman year at the University of Colorado Boulder. Unfazed by rainstorms, they huddled in a tiny camping cabin at a KOA campground in Rocky Mountain National Park “listening to weird, eclectic indie music, cooking hot dogs over the fire pit, staying up late talking under the stars, and enjoying being back together after the school year.”

“He was so immensely funny and joyful, and loved being in beautiful natural places,” she wrote in an email. “We had the best time.”

Remember the Mark Hortman who played poker with his neighbors on Windsor Terrace or leaned over a pool table, lining up a shot. Remember him by his wife’s side through two failed campaigns and all the successful ones that followed on her ascent to speaker of the Minnesota House.

Remember how he never let go of a good dad joke. Every time his book-loving daughter forgot to return a book to the library on time, an automated message system would ring the Hortman home and mangle the name of Sophie K. Hortman.

“Sof eye Kuh Hortman!” her father would repeat loudly, a big smile on his face, every time he saw her, robocall or no robocall. It never got old. “Sof eye Kuh Hortman!”