Eugene, Enid, and Melanie Mark Fund

Eugene and Enid Mark, who married in 1954 and settled in Wallingford, Pennsylvania, shared a passion for books and learning. Their son, Peter D. Mark, describes the “sea of books” in his late father’s small apartment. “They were divided between his and my mom’s. She had more literature and poetry, and he had more history, economics, and finance.”

Eugene, who passed away in January 2020 at the age of 96, was a voracious reader to his last days. In the evenings, Peter says, his father liked to “swivel”—his name for relaxing in his upholstered swivel chair, reading “the New York Times, the New Yorker, or a book about Jewish or American history.” Eugene also enjoyed the Yiddish Book Center’s magazine, Pakn Treger, having grown up hearing Yiddish from his mother, Anna. On more than one occasion, he visited the Center. “He was enchanted by it.”

Eugene studied economics at Harvard, though his mother had misgivings about his choice of college. “In those days before Amtrak and I-95,” Peter explains, “Boston was a lot farther from Philadelphia. She didn’t want her boychik going so far from home.” After Eugene finished his degree (interrupted by a stint in World War II) and did his MBA at Wharton, he joined his father’s retail business. Jacob Mark, who came to the United States from Lithuania in his teens, set up his first clothing store in Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, in 1919. A few years later, Jacob married Anna Segal, whose roots were in Bialystok, Poland.

In 1953 Eugene met his own future wife, a girl from New York City named Enid Epstein. Enid’s Belarus-born father, Harry, ran a flooring company that, famously within the family, laid the stage floor of Radio City Music Hall. Harry was extremely well read, despite his eighth-grade education. When Enid studied literature and art at Smith College, and mentioned classic literary works, her father had read them.

A gifted artist, Enid combined raising Peter and his sister, Melanie, with painting and exhibiting. Later, Enid found acclaim making artist books. Her limited-edition objets, incorporating poetry and images, are in the permanent collections of museums and libraries internationally. In memory of Enid, who passed away in 2008, Eugene established the Enid Mark Lecture, held annually at the Smith College Library. 

Peter’s sister Melanie was active in Jewish organizations starting in high school, she earned a double masters: one in social work at the University of Maryland, one in Jewish Studies at Hebrew Union College in Baltimore.

Now it’s Peter’s turn to commemorate his parents and sister with the Eugene, Enid, and Melanie Mark Fund, which will support the Yiddish Book Center’s educational programs, including Great Jewish Books. This generous endowment, Peter emphasizes, is to honor “their spirit, and their value of education. They’re the ones who instilled that in me, and this is really coming from them.”

For information on how you can establish a named fund at the Yiddish Book Center, please contact Zvi Jankelowitz at [email protected] or 413-256-4900, ext. 117.

From Kvel, the development newsletter of the Yiddish Book Center (Spring 2022)