James Morris Markham IV ’65

JIM MARKHAM died by his own hand in Paris on Aug. 9, 1989. He was about to return to the U.S. as a deputy foreign editor of the NEW YORK TIMES, after seventeen eventful years as a foreign correspondent for that newspaper. He is survived by Steffi, his wife of 23 years; two children, Katherine and Samuel; his sister, Holly, and his parents, Mr. and Mrs. James M. Markham III. We mourn the inexplicable loss of a distinguished newspaperman and generous friend.

After Princeton, Jim studied in England as a Rhodes Scholar. Early in his career, he was stationed in Africa and India with the Associated Press. He then wrote for the TIMES from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos during the war; from Lebanon during its civil war and the Israeli invasion, and from revolutionary Afghanistan. In recent years, he was the TIMES bureau chief in Madrid, Bonn and Paris. Jim possessed a strong interest in history, a facility with language (he spoke at least five foreign languages fluently), and an informed empathy that won him the trust and friendship of people in all stations. Because he had these qualities, and because he loved foreign cultures, Jim had an uncommonly deep understanding of people and events.

He conveyed his insights to his readers clearly and gracefully. The executive editor of the TIMES, Max Frankel, remarked on Jim's death that "in many ways he personified the dignity and values of this enterprise."

Jim represented excellence to all his friends, who remember Jim's honesty, his perceptiveness, his irony, and his sense of fun. His death is a terrible loss.