Alumni News

In Memory of Wayne Marko

by Aaron Yoshinobu

Some of you may remember TTU Alumni Wayne Marko (MS 2005; PhD 2012). Sadly, Wayne died 19 June 2023, peacefully in his sleep. The cause of death was a heart attack. Wayne was an associate professor at Oakton College, outside of Chicago. I had the privilege of knowing Wayne since the mid-late 90's where he was an undergrad at USC while I was in grad school. He came to work on an MS in structural geology and magma emplacement in 2002 and finished his MS in 2005. He published this work in Tectonophysics in 2011. He then worked with Cal Barnes, Carol Frost (Univ. of Wyoming), Heather Anderson and me in Norway on the Vega intrusion for a number of field seasons. He was the most detail oriented student I have ever worked with. His detailed geologic map of the White Horse pluton contact aureole remains the most detailed and complex map I have ever had the pleasure of watching a student create. Whether it was an outcrop, thin section, or analytical data, he spent countless hours considering and weighing the results and his thinking about geologic processes. Wayne was also a TA and instructor in the Geosciences Department and mentored many students through Structural Geology and Physical Geology. 

 

These pictures capture Wayne at different stages of his time here at TTU: in his MS field area in the White Horse mountains, eastern Nevada; admiring the serene Tosenfjord, on the way to the Helgeland, and on the island of Vega in central Norway, where he studied the enormous Vega Intrusive Complex, likely the largest S-Type intrusion in the world. This work culminated in his fine publication in the Journal of the Geological Society of London. 

 

Wayne was a curious field-oriented geologist with eclectic and wide ranging tastes in music, art and friends. So many TTU Geosciences students between 2002 and 2012 came under the influence of Wayne's mentorship, easy going personality and keen sense of humor. He will be sorely missed. He is survived by his partner, Kelly Wisecup, a Professor at Northwestern, whom Wayne met here at TTU while both were PhD students.