| My whole life, my dad raved about Shirley's many talents in her field, particularly as a diagnostician. She & Henry influenced him in his own career path. He wrote: As a young child, I jealously knew my 5 year older sister as a talented student and pianist. By my teens she was a wonderful friend, mentor and idol. Though she worried our parents with her social concerns (e.g., using her Xmas earnings to buy a coveted doll for a minority child, a stranger to her), her leftist political activities didn't really surface until her college years. By the time she attended graduate school in New York Uncle Phil supported her Socialistic commitments and her relationship with Henry Mark (1950 marriage) solidified them. Shirley’s political activism was always a reflection of her devotion to people. I believe that the destruction of her faith in Soviet Socialism, that came with the Stalinist Russia revelations, led her to more fervently serve people though her profession. Her talents with children and her humanistic motivations joined with her husband Henry's neuropsychological science and allowed her to gift handicapped children with clinical help somewhere far beyond excellence. From Neurotrials website 2001: The Marks are a husband and wife team who were with the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions for over 45 years prior to their retirement in 1997. Mrs. Shirley Mark was an Instructor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins Medical School during most of her 45 years there, and became Director of the Kennedy-Krieger Neuropsychology Department when Dr. Mark left for private practice. She continued to serve in that capacity up to her retirement. | | |
