David Everett Mark, 81, Former Diplomat
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David Everett Mark, a former American ambassador to Burundi and deputy assistant secretary of state who after retiring went to work as a professor and a New York City tour guide, died Saturday in a car accident while on vacation in Montana. He was 81.
A native New Yorker, Mark served as ambassador to Burundi from 1974 to 1977. Two years later, he was named deputy assistant secretary of state, a post he held until 1981.
Mark, a graduate of Columbia University School of Law, was fluent in Russian, German, and French and conversant in four other languages. With the breakup of the Soviet Union, he helped establish the American Embassy in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia, and helped the new government in writing its constitution.
For the last 15 years, Mark was an active member of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City and an adjunct professor of global affairs at New York University.
