MADISON - Michael Neil “Mike” Condon, a devoted husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, veteran, lifelong learner, adventurer, and friend, passed away on Sunday, September 20, 2026, after a life that was anything but ordinary.

Born June 2, 1943, in Seattle, Wash., while his father was serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, Mike grew up in Madison and Monona, Wis., as the oldest of four children. From the beginning, he was curious, independent, and inclined to make his own way. By his own telling, he was also occasionally a little mischievous. He once recalled being sent to the principal’s office as a boy—and responding by kicking the principal in the shin. It was, perhaps, an early indication that Mike was not someone who easily accepted being told what to do.

He loved being outdoors and exploring. As a boy, he rode his bicycle all over Madison, eventually riding around Lake Mendota and Lake Monona. He hitchhiked, traveled, explored, and developed a lifelong curiosity about people and places beyond his own backyard.

At 17, Mike made a decision that would shape the rest of his life. Rather than continue down a path he feared might lead him into trouble, he enlisted in the U.S. Army. He served in Germany during the early 1960s, where he became a tank crewman and experienced a world very different from the one he had known in Wisconsin. He witnessed the tension surrounding the construction of the Berlin Wall, traveled throughout Europe, and developed a lasting appreciation for seeing the world firsthand.

Mike eventually returned to military service, first in the Army and later in the U.S. Air Force. His military career took him to Korea, Germany, the Philippines, Oklahoma, Illinois, and elsewhere. He served for more than 20 years before retiring from the Air Force in 1983.

Military life suited many of Mike’s natural qualities. He was practical, mechanically inclined, intelligent, adaptable, and never afraid to figure out a better way of doing something. When one job didn't suit him, he found another. When an obstacle appeared, he looked for a way around it. He could repair equipment, work with communications systems, supervise people, solve technical problems, and - true to his personality - occasionally find a creative way around a rule he thought made little sense.

His military career was filled with stories that reflected his sense of humor and his independent spirit. He traveled extensively, worked with communications and microwave equipment, supervised crews, participated in military exercises, and spent years in the Philippines, a place that became particularly important in his life.

It was there that Mike met Maria, the woman who would become the love of his life. They married in Oklahoma on April 12, 1972, and shared more than 50 years together.

Mike never hesitated to say what Maria meant to him. In the autobiography he wrote late in his life, he described meeting her as the best thing that ever happened to him. He thanked her for standing beside him through some of the hardest years of his life, including cancer and heart surgery, and for giving him a reason to keep going when there were times he felt he could not.

Their life together took them across countries and continents before eventually bringing them to Florida. Along the way, they raised a family and built a life filled with work, travel, friendships, service, and countless stories.

After retiring from the military, Mike was far from finished. He worked as a postal employee, became a barber, returned to school, and ultimately earned an associate degree in computer programming. In his 40s, he entered the world of computer programming and went on to work for Wisconsin Physicians Service and American Family Insurance.

For a man who repeatedly insisted that he never liked school, Mike certainly spent a remarkable amount of his life learning.

He was also a man who loved staying busy. He officiated softball, basketball, baseball, soccer, and other sports. He became a motorcycle safety instructor and taught people how to ride safely for many years. He developed a passion for amateur radio, earning his highest amateur radio license and becoming involved in emergency communications, weather spotting, ARES, RACES, and local emergency operations.

Mike treasured his family's history and the years he spent with his brother, George, researching their family tree, visiting courthouses and cemeteries, collecting photographs, and preserving stories from earlier generations.

Helping others was often woven quietly into the things Mike enjoyed. Whether teaching someone to ride a motorcycle, communicating during severe weather, examining candidates for amateur radio licenses, or working behind the scenes during an emergency, he found ways to contribute.

Mike also loved technology, machinery, motorcycles, cars, radio, and figuring out how things worked. He had an engineer's curiosity without necessarily having an engineer's title. If something broke, he wanted to understand why. If there was a problem, he wanted to solve it. And if someone told him something couldn't be done, there was a good chance that he would spend some time trying to prove otherwise.

He had a wonderfully dry sense of humor and an ability to laugh at himself. His autobiography is filled with stories told with a twinkle in the eye - stories about military life, travel, jobs, mistakes, adventures, bureaucracy, and the many unexpected turns his life took. He didn't try to portray himself as perfect. He openly acknowledged his mistakes, his regrets, and the things he wished he had done differently.

One of those regrets was that military service and the course of his life sometimes kept him away from his family. As he looked back, he wished he had been closer to his parents and siblings and had spent more time with his family.

But he also understood that every choice had helped shape the life he ultimately loved.

Mike was a man who believed in finishing what he started. His life was filled with reinvention: soldier, tank crewman, communications specialist, supervisor, computer programmer, barber, postal worker, sports official, motorcycle instructor, amateur radio operator, emergency volunteer, husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather.

He survived serious illness and endured years of pain following cancer treatment. Yet he continued moving forward. He kept learning. He kept working. He kept helping. He kept exploring. And he kept finding reasons to stay busy and engaged with the world around him.

In his later years, Mike and Maria made their home in Dunnellon, Florida. There, he continued his involvement with amateur radio, weather spotting, emergency communications, and volunteer service. Even after retirement, he joked that he sometimes seemed busier than when he was working.

Mike's life was not perfect, and he would have been the first to say so. But it was full.

He saw places many people only read about. He served his country. He made lifelong friends. He built a family. He loved deeply. He survived difficult times. He learned new things throughout his life. And he never entirely lost the adventurous young man who rode his bicycle all over Madison simply because he wanted to see what was out there.

Perhaps the best way to understand Mike is through his own words near the end of his autobiography. Looking back on everything - the good decisions, the mistakes, the struggles, the unexpected turns—he concluded that he would not change his life. To change one thing might mean losing the people he met, the friends he made, the family he loved, and the woman who stood beside him for more than half a century.

Mike was grateful for the life he had.

And that life was, indeed, a remarkable one.

He is lovingly remembered by his wife, Maria; his children, Michelle, Donald, Jodi, Jose, William and Jennifer; his grandchildren and great-grandchildren; his siblings, George (Lynne), Theresa (Robert) Marty, and Mary (Stephen Nashold) Condon; sisters-in-law, Jovita Atrill, Connie Dorantich and Rosario Reynolds; together with the many friends, fellow veterans, colleagues, and members of the communities he touched throughout his life. He was preceded in death by his parents, Francis William and Virginia Ann Condon.

Mike will be remembered for his independence, his curiosity, his humor, his stubborn determination, his willingness to try something new, and his remarkable ability to find his way through whatever life put in front of him.

Above all, he will be remembered as a man who loved his family, loved his wife, loved his country, and loved experiencing the world.

Visitation will be held at GUNDERSON FUNERAL AND CREMATION CARE, 5203 Monona Drive, Madison, from 4 p.m. until 7 p.m. on Thursday, October 22, 2026. A Rosary will be prayed at IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY CATHOLIC CHURCH, 5101 Schofield St., Monona, at 10: 30 a.m. on Friday, October 23, 2026, followed by another visitation at the church from 11 a.m. until the time of the Mass of Christian Burial at 12 noon. Burial with Military Honors will follow the Mass at Roselawn Memorial Park, 401 Femrite Drive, Monona, followed by a luncheon at the church in Marion Hall.

Online condolences may be made at www.gundersonfh.com.

Gunderson East
Funeral & Cremation Care
5203 Monona Drive
(608) 221-5420

Michael Condon

June 02, 1943 - September 20, 2026

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