Mark Allen Emond

Mark A. Emond, 87, a resident of Livermore, Colo., died Aug. 29, 2015, at Pathways Hospice in Loveland. Cremation has been performed. At his request there will be no memorial service. His immediate family will have a gathering to honor him at a later date.

Mark was born Feb. 9, 1928, in Two Rivers, Wis., to Victor and Sophia Emond, the second oldest of seven children. He graduated from Washington High School in 1946 and was senior class president. He enlisted in the U.S. Army Sept. 18, 1946, and received basic training at Fort Bragg, N.C. He applied for assignment to the Army's Officer Candidate School and entered the school in January 1947. He graduated as a Second Lieutenant in June 1947 when he was 19 years old. After Signal Corp training at Fort Monmouth, N.J., he was assigned to Guam.

While on Guam, he applied for a competitive appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and was one of 128 Army and Air Force soldiers to get a chance to take the West Point entry exams. He was transferred to Stewart Air Force Base where he attended nine months of concentrated English, mathematics, and American history training all in preparation for the West Point entrance exam. He was successful but declined an appointment to West Point. He was honorably discharged on Oct. 18, 1949, returning to civilian life. He remained a Reserve Officer until April 1, 1953.

In 1950, Mark was hitchhiking across the U.S. to California when he took a side trip to Boulder, Colo. He then enrolled at CU Boulder, using the GI Bill, starting the summer quarter of 1950. Soon after enrolling, he began writing for the student newspaper, the Silver and Gold. During his junior year, 1952-53, he was editor of the newspaper and changed its name to The Colorado Daily.

In the fall of 1950, he met a fellow writer on the newspaper, Jean Drake, of Greeley, Colo. They were married Jan. 31, 1953, between semesters during their junior year, and both of them graduated from CU Boulder on June 5, 1954. Mark majored in philosophy with a minor in mathematics. He received a B.A., magna cum laude, and was tapped for the Phi Beta Kappa honor society. He was also a member of the social fraternity, Phi Kappa Psi.

After Joseph Stalin died in March 1953, Mark and two other college newspaper editors applied for visas to enter the Soviet Union. The visas were granted that summer and they were among the first few American tourists in years allowed to travel behind the Iron Curtain. Palmer Hoyt, publisher of the Denver Post, agreed to pay for Mark's trip in exchange for his writing a series of articles after he returned. In addition, Time-Life gave him cameras and many rolls of film. His pictures were published in Life magazine. Mark had taken several years of Russian language so he was able to converse somewhat with Russian citizens. They toured Moscow and Kiev for 15 days.

Mark's first job following graduation from CU Boulder was with the Associated Press at the Wyoming State Bureau in Cheyenne, Wyo. In August 1956, Mark was transferred by the AP to New York City and assigned to cover the United Nations, including the Suez and Hungary crises.

In 1958, Mark resigned from the AP and moved to McGraw-Hill where he was copy editor for National Petroleum News (NPN) a trade magazine covering the oil marketing industry. The Emonds lived in Bayside, Queens, at first. In 1959, they bought a home in North Brunswick, N.J. In 1961, Mark requested a transfer to the Los Angeles offices of McGraw-Hill, where he was named West Coast Editor of NPN. They bought a home in Anaheim, Calif., where they remained for 33 years.

From 1967 to 1971, Mark was editor-in-chief of the Lundberg Letter, another publication in the oil marketing industry. In 1971, he went freelance, working from home. He picked up the same position at NPN, this time on a freelance basis, and he wrote for Platt's Oilgram News and some other publications.

In 1991, he received the Robert J. Enright Award for Outstanding Journalistic Achievement, given by the Association of Petroleum Writers and the American Petroleum Institute.

The parents of Mark's wife Jean had a cabin in Red Feather Lakes, Colo. The Emond family spent vacations there almost every summer while living in Anaheim. In 1994, they sold the Anaheim home and lived in the Red Feather cabin while a new home was being built near Green Mountain Meadows in Livermore on land they purchased in 1972. They moved to their new home in 1996.

Mark continued to write from home in Red Feather and later in Livermore for NPN and Platt's Oilgram News and he was also editor of three publications for Specialty Publishing Co. He retired in 2005 when he was almost 77 years old.

Mark is survived by his wife of 62 years, Jean Drake Emond. Also surviving are his son Steve Emond; daughter Susan J. Emond and her children Alexandra Emond and Dylan Whitehurst; daughter Linda Emond; and son Larry Emond, wife Sandra, and children Howie Emond and Catalina Emond.

His sister Doris Malkowski (late Chester); sister Joan Yench (Frank), and brother Don Emond (Phyllis), also survive him. He was predeceased by brother Glenn (Sandy), and sisters Donna Thiede (late Don), and Nancy Virnoche (Paul).

Donations may be mailed to the Glacier View Fire Dept., 1414 Green Mountain Dr., Livermore, CO 80536, or Pathways Hospice, 305 Carpenter Rd., Fort Collins, CO 80525, www.pathways-care.org .