1. In Memoriam: Julius Stephen ‘Steve’ Marks III ’59, Trustee Emeritus

News Office
September 25, 2024

Julius Stephen "Steve" Marks III '59, trustee emeritus of Washington and Lee University, died Aug. 20, 2024, in Houston. He was 86.

Marks was born to Julius S. Marks Jr. and Ann L. Marks on Sept. 11, 1937, in Memphis, Tennessee. He attended Haywood County High School before enrolling in the fall of 1955 at Washington and Lee University.

While in Lexington, he belonged to Zeta Beta Tau, one of two Jewish fraternities on campus, was on staff for the Calyx and was a member of ROTC. He graduated in 1959 with a Bachelor of Science in history.

Following his graduation, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army and was stationed in France. Upon completing his military service, he returned to the U.S. and worked for the Credit Bureau of Memphis. He founded Credit Bureau Marketing (CBM) several years later to act as a facilitator to national credit grantors, assisting them in issuing credit cards to consumers. After serving oil companies initially, the company added more than 250 retail and banking clients to its portfolio in the 1970s and became the largest single user of credit information in the U.S.

He married Mary Lynn Myers of Memphis, Tennessee, in 1965. The couple welcomed two children, Lisa Marks Schwarz and Stephen Marks. In the early 1970s, the family relocated to Houston, and in 1982, Marks sold CBM to Equifax Inc. He continued to work for Equifax until the early 1990s, when he retired as vice president of mergers and acquisitions. He continued to be a consultant in that field for a few years after.

Throughout his life, Marks continued to be involved with W&L. He served on the Board of Trustees from 1990 to 1999, which he called the "most fulfilling service of my life." He served as co-chair of the Reunion Class Committee for his 50th reunion, and he helped inspire his fellow ZBT fraternity brothers to support the construction of the new Hillel House at W&L. His Class of 1959 pledge class gave a reunion gift of $1.1 million for the Hillel House, including an endowment for maintenance. In addition, he was a member of the university's National Campaign Steering Committee for the On the Shoulders of GiantsCampaign, served on his 55th reunion committee and was a member of the Chapter Volunteers and the Development Council. He and his wife provided significant philanthropic support for Wilson Hall, The Williams School of Commerce, Economics, and Politics, the Center for International Education's Global Learning Program, the John and Anne Wilson Honor Scholarship and the Francis Pendleton Gaines Scholarship.

Marks once said, "W&L gave me a sense of honor and integrity in all that I do and provided me the building blocks to enhance all aspects of my life."

In addition to supporting W&L, he and his wife cherished the arts and enjoyed volunteering and pursuing philanthropic endeavors to support arts-based organizations in Houston with Marks serving as trustee for the Houston Symphony Endowment and the Houston Grand Opera.

He is survived by his wife, Mary Lynn; his two children, Lisa Marks Schwarz of Boston and William Stephen Marks of Santa Monica, California, and Brooklyn, New York; and five grandchildren.

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