Jonathan Greenfield Mark Obituary

Jonathan Greenfield Mark, a distinguished veteran of the U.S. Air Force, died on May 11, 2024, in Boca Raton, Florida. Col. Mark was buried with full military (retiree) honors on May 14 at South Florida Jewish Cemetery in Lake Worth, Florida. He was 75 years old.

A veteran of the Vietnam War and a former intelligence officer, Col. Mark received many medals and awards for meritorious service during his decades-long career with the Air Force.

Of particular note, Col. Mark received a Joint Service Commendation Medal from the National Defense University in Washington, D.C., for periods of service from 1991 to 1998, when he was a seminar moderator-controller covering national security issues at the National Defense University. Col. Mark “displayed exceptional diplomacy and joint service awareness through invoking a series of interagency and national security discussions for a distinguished group of senior military and National Defense Executive Reserve Officers,” the medal citation says.

A former resident of Washington, D.C., and Alexandria, Va., he worked on numerous projects at the Pentagon.

Col. Mark was born on December 22, 1948, in New York City to Sidney Carl Mark and Patricia Greenfield Mark. While attending the University of Texas at Austin, he participated in the ROTC program and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Air Force immediately following graduation. He began his career during the Vietnam War as an intelligence officer in Thailand, where he briefed and debriefed Air Force pilots and participated in two air combat missions.

He earned a master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a doctorate in international relations from the University of Oklahoma. While conducting research for his Ph.D. thesis, he learned Russian and debriefed “refuseniks” who had emigrated from the Soviet Union to the United States.

Col. Mark was an expert in military history with the exceptional ability to recount lengthy battles from the Civil War and the World Wars, as well as the flamboyant lives of military and political leaders. He credited this ability to a photographic memory—he could remember anything he read. He said his memory was one of the reasons he excelled at intelligence work for the Air Force.

Throughout his military service and during his years at the Pentagon, he was also highly valued for his writing ability and analytical insight.

Col. Mark was a member of the Republican Jewish Coalition and traveled with the group twice to Israel, where he met with senior Israeli government leaders. When not on active duty with the Air Force Reserve, he combined his writing skills with his passion for travel by becoming a professional travel writer and enthusiastic photographer. Closer to home in Alexandria, he enjoyed musical theater at Arena Stage in D.C. and relished the area’s fine restaurants.

Col. Mark is survived by his four siblings: Priscilla Mark Luce of Ambler, Penn.; Mary Alice Alexander of Marblehead, Mass.; Sarah Edna Mark of Laurel, Md.; and Henry Greenfield Mark of Seattle, Wash.; as well as seven nieces and nephews and eight great-nieces and great-nephews.

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