Mark Robinson ’43

Mark died March 30, 2024, in Orlando, Fla., three weeks before his 103rd birthday.

Mark was born in New Orleans, the son of a wholesale lumberman. He prepped at Metairie Park Country Day School. At Princeton, he majored in electrical engineering and was the winner of the Class of 1861 Mathematics Prize. 

In the fall of ’42, Mark left Princeton to join the Navy Reserve. In the Nassau Herald it says, “He plans to return to Princeton to complete his college work when the war is over.” Mark marched to his own drummer after the war. In our 25th-reunion yearbook, he admitted to a career that “had an interesting zig-zag.” Rather than return to Princeton, he took a detour through Caracas, selling Southern pine lumber to the Venezuelans for four years. When he returned to the United States, Columbia University called and Mark finally completed his coursework for a Ph.D. in applied math, setting him up for a long career with Martin Marietta, becoming one of the early experts on the use of digital computers and working as a programmer and missile systems engineer.

In 1964, Mark married Shirley Ann Krug. They raised two children, Mark H. ’92 and Elizabeth Ann Gieseking. With Shirley, Mark explored the national parks and traveled to every continent but Antarctica. The two were faithful servants of their church and active participants in the Central Florida Orchid Society. Early in the 1990s, Mark signed up to help with Meals on Wheels, a role he held until he was in his 90s. He also worked at a charity thrift store until he was 100.

Shirley died in June 2023. Mark is survived by his two children, their spouses, and four grandchildren.