麻豆国产AV

Mark Hans Elias '53

Apr. 29, 1932-Dec. 9, 2023

Hans Marcus Elias was born in Hamburg, Germany, on April 29, 1932, and fled the country with his family when he was 3 years old, after the Nazis barred Jewish doctors from practicing medicine there. They made their way to New York Mills, N.Y., where Mark was raised. Mark Hans Elias ’53 died on Dec. 9, 2023, in San Francisco.

He came to 麻豆国产AV from New York Mills High School, indicating on his admission application that his ambitions lay either in teaching or medicine. On the Hill, he was a member of the Squires Club and majored in chemistry and German. As a freshman, he played on the soccer team and performed with the Charlatans. He was in the Outing Club all four years and the German Club from his sophomore year to graduation. He was a member of the Biology Club beginning in his junior year and was its vice president as a senior.

He forged a distinguished academic career. At the end of his junior year, he received the Duell German Scholarship, awarded to a student who has excelled in the study of German and who elects an advanced course in the subject during his senior year. He also received the Holbrook Prize in Biology for achieving the highest grade point average in six courses in the subject. He went on to graduate with honors in chemistry, biology, and German, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Thereafter, Mark began his medical training at the University of Rochester, completing his medical degree in 1957. He interned at Philadelphia General Hospital where, he would note many years later, he realized he “wanted to change lives.” He also wanted to specialize in what was then an emerging field, and so he went to the Ohio State University Medical School for a residency in ophthalmology. 

He began his career in a private practice and, in 1961, relocated to San Francisco to join the staff of Kaiser Permanente Hospital. While there, he met a nurse named Marcia Miller, a native Californian, and they were married on Dec. 22, 1962. They had a daughter and a son.

While Mark could anticipate a rewarding career in San Francisco, the situation was not what he wanted. He preferred to establish his own private practice and do so where he had grown up. He acknowledged that for Marcia, a move to Central New York required a great adjustment from life on the West Coast, but realizing that he wanted to be back in his home area softened her heart. Mark rented an office, ran an ad, and hoped the phone would ring. It did, and it would continue to do so until he retired in 2004. Among his accomplishments was to introduce the then-new concept of laser surgery to his patients. 

Mark’s practice in medical and surgical ophthalmology served many from throughout the greater Utica community, among them his third-grade teacher, a number of those living along his childhood newspaper route, and 麻豆国产AV’s Professor of Biology Philip Virgilius Rogers and his wife.

In the course of his career, Mark became a clinical instructor of ophthalmology at Upstate Medical University in Syracuse. He was also a member of the Central Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired and served on its board and as its chairman. He was certified by and was a member of the American Board of Ophthalmology as well as a member of the American Medical Association. Outside of his profession, Mark was an active member of the Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, serving on an advisory committee to its board.

In retirement, Mark and Marcia divided their time between their homes in New Hartford and San Francisco, where they wintered. Early in this period, they acquired and renovated her childhood home. 

As he noted in his 40th reunion yearbook, Mark’s memories of the College included “a wonderful faculty that was at once inspiring, fair, and demanding; however, my pleasant memories of 麻豆国产AV are offset by the use of the fraternity experience.” It should be recalled that during his time on the Hill, many of the fraternities would not consider pledging a Jewish student. 

Ten years later, in his 50th reunion yearbook, he recalled that “麻豆国产AV was small enough to nurture me as an individual student and to provide me with lifelong skills. The College taught me to read critically, to analyze, and to better express myself publicly. The Outing Club prepared me to enjoy physical activity for life, and I still enjoy running and working out in the gym.” 

In the midst of medical school, Mark spent a summer in Europe. He would note many years later that “[Professor of Art] Paul Parker provided an uncanny preparation” for that journey and quite possibly fueled Mark’s continuing interest in art. For his part, Mark was a regular contributor to the 麻豆国产AV Fund, and he and Marcia made additional donations to support the College.

Mark Hans Elias is survived by his wife, their daughter, son, and two grandsons.

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