Mark Avery Lothrop
Died June 15, 1983
Mark died of a heart attack on June 15, 1983 while working in his garden at his summer home in Orient Point, Long Island. He was 39 years old and also had a home in Manhattan.
Mark came to Yale from Newton High School, Newtonville, MA, was an economics honors major and lived in Trumbull. At Yale Mark was a member of Phi Gamma Delta and Omicron Delta Epsilon, played Trumbull football and hockey and participated in the Political Union and riflery, both freshman (where he won his numerals) and varsity.
At the time of his death, he was a partner in the Manhattan law firm of Kaye, Scholer, Fierman & Handler, specializing in banking and finance law. Mark had joined the firm in 1968 after graduating from Columbia School of Law and became a partner in 1977.
He was survived by his wife, the former Patricia Dooley, a daughter, Megan, a son, Sean, his father, Warren, of Kennebunkport, ME, and two sisters, Sarah Duckett of Hopkinton, MA, and Susan Higgens of Goose Rocks Beach, ME.
Oscar Mayer remembers:
Mark Lothrop was the most effortlessly successful student I ever came across. The result, for him, was that he had time on his hands, and he had more fun with that time than the rest of his suite mates combined. For example, Mark was the only one of the four of us to join a fraternity, and he made great use of his membership there. It wasn’t that he didn’t study. It was, rather, that Mark could do in an hour what took me all evening. It was maddening at times, but mostly it was fascinating. I don’t recall Mark’s academic rank or GPA; I’m sure he was way up there. But grades were not very interesting to him. He knew he had prodigious talent; he didn’t need grades to prove it. After Yale, he went to Columbia Law School, and I believe his name would have become synonymous with success in his field, had he not departed our midst at far too young an age. You dazzled us, Mark. Thanks for the sweet memories!
Robert Kinderman remembers:
Mark was my roommate through all four years at Yale. He had a brilliant mind that made me envious: he could do all his classwork laying on our window bench with music playing at high volume. Mark was a big healthy strong man who loved sports of all kinds. His home was in Newton, MA, and I enjoyed many opportunities to spend time with his family. Mark instantly went from perfect health to dead one fall day when he collapsed while raking leaves at his house. Heart attack they said. He was only about 30 when he left us.
Robert Hammond remembers:
Smiling, amiable, blonde, square-built “ Throp” ushered at the Schubert, played intramural football, tried out for the rifle team, and joined Phi Gam. Trumbull was home for Mark, Oscar Mayer, Bob Kinderman and me for three years. Throp particularly loved the long window seat in our Trumbull suite and in the afternoon could usually be observed sprawling lengthwise on its foam rubber cushions enjoying whatever sunshine might be available through the lead paned casement windows while casually knocking off the NY Times crossword in ink which became a lifelong daily ritual. Throp never mastered cursive penmanship and wrote succinctly in very neat printing. He was brilliant and did well in economics with seeming ease. Throp took me home with him to Newton, MA on multiple occasions where I became friends with his parents and younger sisters, Sarah and Susie.
After graduation he went to Columbia Law while I was at NYU Med and we got together frequently. Throp eventually became a partner at Kaye Scholer. In 1970 he was our best man and I returned the favor after he and Patricia, best described as the loving, caring, intelligent (Barnard and Yale Grad school), not to mention beautiful girl of his dreams fell for each other and were married in a meaningful and scenic ceremony on the lawn of her parents’ house on the shore of Orient Point, LI in 1979. Thrilling additions came with the birth of Sean in 1980 and their daughter Megan in 1983. Throp loved being at the house on the sound and when Patricia’s parents decided to move to Seattle they converted it into a vacation getaway. On June 18, 1983 Patricia and Mark were enjoying an early summer weekend at the house. Throp had just ordered a sailboat and confided day dreams about someday teaching the children to sail. Tragically Mark collapsed in the afternoon while cleaning up the driveway. Sean was 3 and Megan was 10 weeks old. I had the tearful honor of delivering his eulogy at a packed service which a number of classmates were able to attend.
Patricia, Barb, and I cherish our continued friendship. Following a time in Seattle Patricia became a dynamic beloved faculty member in the English Dept. at St. George’s School near Newport RI for the past 25 years where she continues to inspire bright highly motivated students with her wide ranging knowledge, compassion, and love of literature. The school sits on a dramatic bluff overlooking the Atlantic. The neo-Gothic campus where we have enjoyed several memorable but too infrequent visits evokes a sense of Hogwarts blended with Masterpiece Theater. Megan works in publishing and lives with her husband Paul, an attorney in North Bellmore, LI. Sean and his wife Maryam have made their careers working with NGO’s in African nations and are currently living in San Francisco.
Patricia has been able to join us for Saturday festivities at the last few Yale reunions and is hoping to be able to attend the 50th.
I will always mourn for the time Mark did not have and continue to miss him deeply.