Sally Jean Marks, 86, an internationally known scholar of twentieth century European history, died Saturday, January 13, 2018 in Bethlehem, PA. Born January 18, 1931 in New Haven, CT she was the daughter of the late Percy Marks, writer, and Margaret Gates Marks Barton, artist. Sally attended the Prospect Hill School for Girls before graduating from Wellesley College with honors. After working at the Defense Department in Washington, she gained her MA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a PhD in international history from the University of London (London School of Economics).
Professor Marks taught at St. Margaret’s School, Waterbury, CT, the Laycock School, Westport, CT, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Rhode Island College, and Brown University. In addition to numerous articles in journals in this country and abroad, she published four volumes of history, specializing in inter-war European international relations. Her monograph, Innocent Abroad: Belgium at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, won the George Louis Beer Prize of the American Historical Association (AHA) and the senior scholar award of Phi Alpha Theta, the history honorary society.
She received fellowships from the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the AHA. A member of numerous historical organizations, she chaired committees for the AHA, the Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations, and the Conference Group for Central European History. A member of the Tauber Institute, l’Institut royal des relations internationales in Brussels, and the Royal Anglo-Belgian Club in London, she also served on the Editorial Board of H-Diplo, the internet discussion group for diplomatic historians.
Professor Marks was a member of the RI Historical Society, the Providence Art Club, the Providence Committee on Foreign Relations, and the Providence Athenaeum and its book group. She served on the governing boards of Common Cause of RI, Project Learn, the American Association of University Professors of RI, the Providence branch of the American Association of University Women (AAUW), the Friends of the Rochambeau Library, and the Mystery Buffs of RI. She also tutored for Volunteers in Providence Schools, was a docent at the Holocaust Museum of RI, and worked on book sales for the AAUW, the Rochambeau Library and the Athenaeum.
She is survived by her stepsister, Wendy Bingert of Easton, PA; her niece, Suzanne Bingert, and her nephews, Thomas Bingert and Stephen Bingert and his wife Kiasha and their daughter Ginger.
Services are private; the Ashton Funeral Home, Easton is handling arrangements. Offer online condolences at www.AshtonFuneralHome.com.
