After graduating from Hamilton College in 1964, Marks joined the U. S. Navy. As a naval lieutenant, he played goaltender for the 1965 U.S. National ice hockey team, then became a member of the U.S. Navy SEAL Team 2. Marks served in Vietnam, where he was awarded the Bronze Star (V device) and a Purple Heart for his service in the Mekong Delta.
Marks’s career was defined by his contributions as a journalist in countries around the globe. During his 40- year career, he frequently reported on the wars and civil strife throughout Asia and the Middle East.
Marks first joined the Worcester, Massachusetts, Telegram & Gazette, and then worked for United Press International in Hartford, Connecticut. After serving as a night editor of UPI’s New England regional headquarters in Boston, he was offered an assignment to Tokyo. It was from that base that he first returned to Vietnam as a correspondent. He also covered the 1971 war between India and Pakistan.
Marks served in Asia for UPI for a total of 10 years. He was an editor in Hong Kong and UPI’s bureau chief in Bangkok. During those years, he continued to journey to Indochina to cover the ongoing war there. He spent large parts of 1973-75 in Cambodia and Laos, where he covered the spread of the war into those countries. He was on one of the final helicopters when the United States evacuated Cambodia, shortly before the fall of Phnom Penh, only weeks before the fall of Saigon. Later in 1975, Marks covered the fall of Laos as that country, too, fell to its own insurgency.
At the conclusion of the Indochina War, Marks returned to Tokyo where he was UPI’s General Manager for North Asia. He traveled throughout Japan, Korea, China, and Micronesia where he managed UPI’s editorial and business affairs. In 1978, he served as president of the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan.
Marks returned to the U.S. in 1980, when he was named executive assistant to the president of UPI. In 1982, he was named Vice President and general manager for UPI’s New England Division.
In 1983, Marks joined Knight- Ridder, working on Wall Street for eight years. In 1990, he founded his own media strategy firm, Marks & Frederick Associates, which represented international news organizations in North America. In 2002 Marks was the founder, editor, and publisher of the KentTribune.com, a local online newspaper that covered Kent and other small towns in Litchfield County.
In 2007, Marks and his wife, Marcia, his wife of 43 years, retired to Phippsburg, Maine. They were avid art collectors, amassing a collection of some 300 works of American and Japanese art. In 2011, the couple donated their Japanese art collection to the Choate School and the Bowdoin College Museum of Art.
Marks grew up in Winchester, Massachusetts, and attended Choate School and Hamilton College. He is survived by his wife, his sisters Anne Morgan and Amelia Marks, and his brother George A. Marks, Jr.
A memorial service is planned for May in Phippsburg. In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to the Building Fund of the Popham Chapel, 40 Bayledges Road, Phippsburg, ME 04562. To share your thoughts and condolences with Ted’s family please visit www.desmondfuneralhomes.com.
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