Marks was born in
Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania, in 1926, to Robert Marks and Sarah Bohorad. Marks attended
Columbia College and
Columbia Medical School. After completing postdoctoral research at the United States
National Institutes of Health and at the
Institut Pasteur in
France, he joined the faculty at
Columbia University. Marks served as dean of the Medical Faculty at Columbia University from 1970 to 1973. He was president and chief executive officer at Memorial Sloan Kettering from 1980 until 1999. Marks died at his Manhattan home from pulmonary fibrosis and lung cancer on April 28, 2020, at the age of 93. ==Scholarly activities==