Mak was born in Sioux Falls, South Dakota on July 10, 1917, but was raised in
Iowa. Mak served in the
United States Army during
World War II between 1941 and 1945. He was awarded two
Purple Hearts and one
Bronze Star. In 1946, Mak joined the Foreign Service, serving as Vice Consul in
Hamburg, Germany,
Dhahran, Saudi Arabia,
Jidda, Saudi Arabia, and
Tripoli, Libya. In 1962, Mak became the first U.S. Ambassador to Kuwait and was responsible for establishing the embassy. In 1969, Mak became the director of
INR for near-east south Asia Affairs. Mak officially retired from the Foreign Service in 1970. Mak was close friends with
Francis Meloy, US Ambassador who was assassinated in
Beirut, Lebanon. Meloy was best man at Mak's wedding. Beginning in the late 1980s, Mak volunteered to help the newly create Association for Diplomatic Studies (later Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, or ADST). He conducted a few interviews for oral histories before beginning to create tables of contents for the oral history collection. Mak continued his volunteer service to ADST until 2014. ==Service chronology==