Cliffton Fischbach

Cliffton Morris Fischbach Jr. was a U.S. Army officer and the father of Thomas and Mark Fischbach.

Biography
Cliffton Morris Fischbach Jr. was born on June 8, 1941 in Louisville, Kentucky to American parents of German descent; Dr. Cliffton Morris Fischbach Sr., a colonel in the U.S. Army who served during World War II and the Korean War, and Flora Marie Doom Fischbach. As a military officer, Cliffton served in the U.S. Army for either 23 or 24 years. While stationed in South Korea, Cliffton met Sunok, his future wife. Some time after, the couple moved to the United States, where they got married and had two sons, Thomas and Mark. Following Mark's birth, Cliffton retired from the military to pursue a job as a layout artist for a book company and the family ended up relocating to Cincinnati, Ohio.

After several years of family-related quarrels, Cliffton and Sunok divorced and were forced to sell the house due to financial issues. In his later life, Cliffton married Dee, who Mark described as "the nicest person [they've] ever met." Around 2007, Cliffton was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. On the early morning of July 4, 2008, Mark and Thomas were woken up by their stepmother's scream. Running downstairs, the two found their father on his deathbed. After a year long battle with cancer, Cliffton died at his home, surrounded by his family, with his final words to them: "I love you, so much." Cliffton's funeral services were held at Milford First United Methodist Church and he was buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Miamiville, Ohio.

Trivia

 * Mark proclaimed Cliffton as his greatest hero.
 * Cliffton was a firearms enthusiast and a member of the National Rifle Association. In his spare time, he built muzzleloader rifles and taught Mark from an early age how guns work and how to properly handle them.
 * According to Mark, before Cliffton died, he got a tattoo below his left shoulder of a bald eagle bearing the American flag, coupled with writing underneath it that read "Honor, Duty, Courage," as a means of commemorating his long military career. Mark also noted that, if he were to ever get a tattoo, it would be the same one as his father's in honor of his memory.
 * In Doom Eternal's hub level, there is a room featuring a bookcase that contains a number of fictional novels with various game-related Easter eggs. One of the novels, titled How To Comb Your Moustache by Cliffton M. Fischbach, is a direct reference to Mark's father and was added by Doom's developers after Hugo Martin did a promotional video with Markiplier. During their session, Mark told Hugo off-screen about his late father introducing him to PC gaming, and that the original Doom was one of the first games he ever played.