Evelyn Marks

Evelyn Marks died peacefully at home in San Mateo on Feb. 8, 2008. Born Evelyn May Blumenthal, she grew up in Santa Paula, Calif. In the 1940s, she moved to Los Angeles and went to work as the assistant to Hollywood legendary figure Lew Wasserman at the MCA Talent Agency, the forerunner to the MCA Entertainment Empire. She married Sam Marks in 1947 and relocated to San Francisco where she went to work as the executive assistant to famed San Francisco real estate mogul and financier Louis Lurie.

She put her career on hold to raise her children, Linda and Robert Marks. She was head of volunteers at Mills-Peninsula Hospital and in the mid 1960s headed the USO at San Francisco International Airport during the Vietnam War. She coordinated and facilitated the trips of major Hollywood celebrities and national sports figures heading to SouthEast Asia. She was honored by the president for her work on behalf of our troops.

When she returned to the working world, Evelyn began to do publicity and fundraising on behalf of the Mental Health Association of San Mateo County; she helped to develop their Friendship Centers and raised money to support a variety of programs.

In the early 1970s she joined her long time friend, Bob Zinkhon, in his San Francisco based public relations business. Their clients and events included the Showplace Design Center, "The Elegant Celebrations of Christmas” and the first exhibition of the People’s Republic of China shortly after the United States resumed relations with China. The event, held in 1980 at Fort Mason, drew thousands.

In the early 1980s, she became the director of special events for KQED. In her role, she created a variety of fundraising events including the Dessert Social and the International Beer Festival. She was recruited by the Pacific Union Company to be the marketing director of the Gift Center in San Francisco. She specialized in organizing corporate events, musical entertainment and a variety of major San Francisco social events. She retired in 1996 and devoted her energy to local concerns on the Peninsula including the San Mateo County Expo Center and HIP Housing, serving on their boards.

According to her son Bob Marks, "My mother was a remarkable woman who loved being in the center of whatever was going on. In her time she was the best organizer and facilitator of events I have ever seen. Her events had a style and class that set them apart. She was a warm, engaging person who inspired me and so many others both in and out of our family to pursue their dreams.”

Marks was preceded in death by her daughter, Linda, who passed away in 1993; her sister and brother-in-law, Bernice and Jay Snyder of San Leandro and her sister and brother-in-law Helen and Leo Linn of San Francisco. She is survived by her son, Bob Marks and his wife, Carol, of San Mateo, her nephew Arnold Snyder and his wife, Donna, of Oakland, her niece, Karen Snyder, of San Diego and her nephew Fred Linn of New Mexico. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations in her memory be made to Pathways Hospice, HIP Housing or the American Cancer Society.