Joe and Nancy Mark with Liberty in 1985
Joe Mark leads faculty and students to a conference in Washington, D.C.
“Joe is the person faculty and students can talk to when they want to test ideas, find answers to vexing questions, or get help with professional or personal problems. He is part authority figure but larger part mentor and friend.” — English professor John Gillen tunities have led many students to graduate training and employment in the area of applied behavioral analysis.” Mark has been in the forefront of technology and a proponent of innovative teaching that engages students. At commencement, he is the administrator who presents the graduates to the president, reading some four hundred names as if each one was the most important of the day. He oversaw Castleton’s recent reaccreditation process through the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. Professor Lillian Jackson, whose social work students have benefitted from Mark’s emphasis on service-learning, says, “You know if he’s involved it will be done very well, thoroughly, on time, and with a professional presentation, either verbal or written. His shepherding us through NEASC was impressive.” History professor Jonathan Spiro believes that Mark combines vision, attention to nitty-gritty details, and an interest in intellectual matters. “He regularly drops by my office to chat, and the conversation usually begins with an overview of the state of higher education in America, and then morphs into some budgetary matter, and then concludes with a stimulating discussion of a history book he has just read.” “Joe is Castleton,” says Rita Geno, long-time administrative assistant in the Dean’s Office. “He sleeps, eats, and breathes Castleton.” Without knowing it, friends and colleagues competed in suggesting whimsical metaphors that capture Mark’s personality and his approach to his job. Candace Thierry ’78, who worked at Castleton for 17 years in positions of increasing responsibility, says,
“Working with Joe was like working with Terry Gross, Bill Gates, and Lance Armstrong: he had read every book, was always looking for innovation, and could do it all while biking the peaks of Vermont.” The-peaks-of-Vermont is a reference to the arduous summer bike trips that Mark took with colleagues from other VSC colleges. They called their rides the Mature Guys’ Tour de Gaps. Victoria Angis, now assistant dean for campus life, compares him to a tugboat. “Tugboats are famed for being agile, for changing course quickly, for pushing big, lumbering liners to open water. Sometimes the water is uncharted and choppy, but the tugboat gets the slow-moving vessel there safely.” And Castleton mathematics professor Abbess Rajia, who shares his enthusiasm and expertise with children and teachers at Mettawee Community School, offers a formula for both Joe and Nancy: MARK = ƒ(Mentor + Advocate + Respectful + Kind). When he was interviewed by The Castleton Spartan, Mark took the opportunity to remind students of the values that make the college special. “So what am I most proud of? One is that we’ve preserved the culture on campus where we treat each other with respect.” He says, “I’m proud of the emergent civic engagement mission, but I’d like to see civic engagement so ubiquitous that it’s virtually impossible for a student not to encounter it.” He is especially proud to have contributed to Castleton’s recognition of its mission. “Castleton is diverse, but the college is securely committed to serving a certain type of student. There is pride in serving students who haven’t blossomed yet.” Castleton Magazine 11