Melvin “Pete” Mark Junior
Real estate developer Melvin “Pete” Mark Junior has died at 91.
Mark and his family company were among of the driving forces behind the look and feel of modern downtown Portland at a time when many city centers across the country were withering.
Oregon Historical Society Executive Director Kerry Tymchuk says Mark had three loves – his family, his business and his city.
“If love of Portland is gold, then Pete Mark all by himself was Fort Knox,” Tymchuk said. “Nobody loved this community the way he did, nobody was as generous as he was in his philanthropist.
In addition to his business work, Mark helped with the creation of Pioneer Courthouse Square and was an avid supporter of the Portland Art Museum and the Oregon Historical Society.
Mark came to Portland in the late 1940s to assist his real-estate developer father, who had just bought the Loyalty Building downtown. He later said he fell in love with the city on his honeymoon with his wife, Mary, in 1951.
Today, his family real-estate company manages more than 3 million square feet of office space in the Portland region.
