Gerald Marks, MD, FACS

In Memorium. 1925-2026

In 2025 Jerry wrote the following biography for the SAL Website.

“ I’m Jerry Marks, a 98-year-old retired general and colorectal surgeon who enjoys celebrating a fulfilling, successful career by pursuing my current and great joy of water color painting.  As an eleven-year-old in junior high, I learned to paint but abandoned my art at fourteen.  Nonetheless, I always thought of myself as an artist, and after a 40-year hiatus, my yearning to paint again took hold.  While I traveled nationally and internationally to academic meetings and surgical conferences, painting became my travel time enterprise, and I chronicled my journey with sentimental and meaningful watercolor memories. Over the years (and despite age-related issues), privilege and good fortune have allowed me to participate in single-person exhibitions, to publish an oversized book, and to have in progress the 24th edition of the calendar of my paintings and a book of 132 paintings entitled The Special Joy of Watercolor Painting at the Age of 90 and Older.  Along my journey, I have pondered the relationship of visual art and the practice of surgery.  I have concluded that the fusion of Art and Surgery potentially enhances the presence of art in the surgical community and provides strong reason to promote and ensure the viability of a surgeons-artist initiative. “