Sadly we announce that Dr. Harry M. Marks, faculty member in the Department of History of Medicine since 1989, died on Jan. 25, 2011, after a battle with cancer. He was 64.

Marks took a Bachelor’s degree from Hofstra University in 1968. His formative years as a scholar were spent in Madison, Wisconsin, where he took a Master’s in 1972 and conducted research toward a PhD in French history. For the rest of his life, he identified with the strong intellectual counterculture of early-seventies Madison.

His medical interest developed in and around greater Boston. From 1969 to 1971, he worked as a medical orderly as an alternative to military service and from 1974 until 1987 he taught and conducted research in medical education and health policy at several Cambridge area schools, including Tufts and Harvard. From 1981 to 1987 he was an instructor in the School of Public Health and, after 1982, also in the Medical School, of Harvard University. In 1987, he took a PhD in Political Science from MIT.

Following a Rockefeller fellowship at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia in 1986-87, he became a research fellow at the Institute of the History of Medicine at Johns Hopkins. He joined the regular faculty in 1989 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 1996. From 1989 he held the A. McGehee Harvey and Elizabeth Treide Harvey Professorship in the History of Medicine.

Author of The Progress of Experiment: Science and Therapeutic Reform in the United States, 1900-1990 (Cambridge, 1997) and numerous articles, Harry Marks was an internationally recognized authority on the history of 20^th century medicine, clinical trials and public health. In addition, his wide-ranging scholarly interests and breadth of knowledge made him an active participant in the departments of history, anthropology, history of science and technology, and epidemiology, where he held joint appointments. He will be missed by many scholars around the world.

Marks is survived by his daughter Irina Spector-Marks and brothers Jason Marks and Tim Ames. He is also survived by his companion Christine Ruggere and family friend Eszter Sapi. Contributions in his memory may be sent to American Friends Service Committee, 1501 Cherry St., Philadelphia, PA 19102.