Mark H. Saunders September 04, 1966 – May 19, 2019 Share this obituary Sign Guestbook| View Guestbook Entries| Memorial Donation Mark H. Saunders of Charlottesville, Va. , passed away suddenly at his home in Virginia on May 19, 2019. He was 52.
Mark is survived by his wife Robin Stafford; his children Binx, Ward, and Harry; and his sister Catherine Saunders and stepsister Caryn Hoadley-Whetstone. He is preceded in death by his parents Barbara Ann McGarrigle and Harold Henry Saunders, of McLean, Va. Born in Northern Virginia on September 4, 1966, Mark lost his mother when he was a young child and was raised by his father, who had a demanding career in the State Department in Washington.
Mark’s father served as US Assistant Secretary of State under the Carter Administration and helped negotiate the Camp David Accords in 1978, which were signed between Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin (the leaders received a shared Nobel Peace Prize that year as a result). Mark and his sister’s second family were the Wehners, who helped raise Mark and remain dear friends to this day. Mark was the “fourth brother” to Harrison, Ross and Jon Wehner, and all the boys attended Lewinsville Presbyterian Church in McLean, Va.
During the summer, Mark worked alongside his adopted brothers clearing trees, repairing barns, and driving tractors on the Wehners’ farm on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. Mark received his BA in English, magna cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania, and spent a semester in London. He married Robin Stafford, his college sweetheart, in 1991.
Mark launched his career in publishing as a buyer at Politics & Prose Bookstore in Washington, and then moved on to Columbia University Press, where he served as East Coast Sales Representative and then National Sales Manager. In 1995 Mark received a Henry Hoyns Fellowship in UVA’s MFA creative writing program and moved with Robin to Charlottesville. He joined the UVA Press marketing department, and over the course of more than twenty years eventually became Marketing and Sales Director and, in 2013, Press Director, supervising a staff of twenty and leading strategic planning, acquisitions, editorial, production, marketing, fiscal, and fundraising activities of the press.
Among his many notable achievements at UVA Press was his central role in establishing its Rotunda electronic imprint, which put the Press at the forefront of innovation in digital scholarship. A dedicated leader within the Association of University Presses, Mark was a pillar within the publishing community. Mark was also an accomplished author.
His novel, Ministers of Fire, was published in 2012 by Swallow Press, an imprint of Ohio University Press. The book received widespread acclaim, including a review in the Wall Street Journal that said, “Ministers of Fire deserves a place next to the works of such masters as Charles McCarry and Robert Stone”. While Mark was passionate about books, language, words, and the liberal arts, he also lived a life of kindness and generosity.
As a parent, he was slow to judge, quick to respond. As a little league baseball coach, he would drive anyone on the team in need of a ride. He served as timer and meet director for countless swim meets.
His son Ward remembers being in line with him at a grocery store behind a woman who did not have enough money to buy groceries, and as she started putting things back on the shelf, Mark casually paid her bill – a powerful image for a ten-year-old boy. At the time of his passing, Mark and Robin were hard at work creating a new home in an idyllic setting outside Charlottesville, Va. The family had been active residents of downtown Charlottesville since 1995, but the move to the country signaled the beginning of a new phase of life.
Binx had graduated from UVa and was working in Washington D.C., Wardy was at school at the University of Colorado Boulder, and Harry was spending a year abroad in China – where the family was preparing to visit him – before starting his freshman year at Princeton. Set on a hill with a small orchard of fruit trees, Mark and Robin’s home looks out over the majestic Virginia countryside. Mark was in the middle of an endless number of unfinished projects: repairing the front stairs, laying stones for a patio, and wiring the tractor shed for electricity.
There was a new tractor for the shed, and a dogwood tree – a Mother’s Day gift for Robin – ready for planting. Mark was optimistic and excited to be with Robin and his family in this beautiful place. The passion for life that marked so many of Mark’s interests was on full display on his last day, which he and Robin spent planting trees and shrubs.
He certainly died too young for the many who loved him and counted on his leadership, but he also died full of the curiosity, passion, love of learning and love of family that drove his every choice. He will be dearly missed. A memorial service will be held at St. Paul’s Memorial Church on University Avenue in Charlottesville, VA, on Friday, May 24, 2019, at 2 pm.
In lieu of flowers, gifts may be made in Mark’s name to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Virginia.
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