Mark S. Freedman

Mark was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia. His father’s family had emigrated there from Galicia. When Mark was 7 years old the family moved to the Bronx, NY to be near his mother’s family. He attended NYC Public schools graduating from Bronx High School of Science. Subsequently he moved to California where he received his BA and MA from California State Colleges.

In California, after graduation he had jobs in sales, before he became the Executive Director of several not-for-profit agencies, the missions of which were to improve life for people with physical and developmental disabilities. He managed the staff, developed programs, was the primary outreach to the communities, instituted state-of-the-art databases and wrote all the grants for funding. He was passionate about designing and instituting programs that enabled people with disabilities to participate fully in work and life. While in Sacramento he fought and succeeded to make all city bus transportation accessible. It was the first city in the United States to provide that.

In 1986, Mark returned to Westchester County, NY where he continued his work in the field of disabilities. He was the Executive Director of CRISP (Community Residence Information Services Program) that ensured that group homes were fairly distributed throughout Westchester County; that each community in the county provided a site for group homes—so that the concentration of group homes was not limited to less affluent towns and cities.

When CRISP lost its government funding in 1990, Mark leveraged his writing talent into the private sector. He founded and ran The Career Strategies Division of The Resource Planning Group which provided resume and marketing materials for internationally based senior level executives in their search for new positions. for their job search.

Mark and Jayne first met in 1987 and married on Jayne’s 50th birthday, December 29, 1996—he said it made it much easier for him to remember those important dates! Their life together was filled with the joy of deep and sustained friendships, continuous exploration, learning, travel, music, arts, and personal growth. Together they traveled for 2 to 3 months each year and ultimately lived in Provence, (France) in their favorite vacation spot, Menton, (France). They came to Sarasota in June of 2019 and last visited France in January, 2020 when the pandemic shut down travels.

Mark had always loved Sarasota because of its very rich cultural life. Still having the “travel bug” but unable to go back to Europe in 2020, Mark and Jayne planned a 3 month cross-country trip from Sarasota to Colorado and return during the summer--at the height of the pandemic. Mark loved using maps and planning travel and managed to find every town with either a Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s—as they were determined to stay out of restaurants and stay only in hotels with cooking facilities. Mark charted the route and spoke to each hotel individually to ensure that the standards of cleanliness and safety were A+.

Once they were “grounded from travel”, they took advantage of all Sarasota has to offer. Music, museums, theatre, dance, classes writing groups became part of daily life. Mark’s favorite events were with organizations that promoted young, emerging and extraordinarily talented musicians and artists who were not headliners but whose talents were unequalled. A new world of music, art, and talent opened—all in Sarasota.

Mark continued writing, taking classes at OLLI, ACE Technical College and at Meet Up Writers groups.

He loved his life. He was kind, brilliant, interesting, knowledgeable; he had a wonderful smile and a keen sense of humor. Friends would laugh when playing trivial Pursuit, when Mark got the board, everyone just got up and left. No one else would ever get a chance. He did the NYTimes crossword puzzle in ink—always with his favorite pen.

Mark died peacefully at Hospice House in Venice, where he spent time with many friends and family in his last days. The care of the staff was extraordinary.

Mark did not want a funeral. He did agree that we could hold a Celebration of Life. We will hold that in mid-to late February to share friendship, warmth laughter and memories. Details to follow.

Along with his wife, Jayne, Mark is survived by his daughter Abby and her partner, Steve Paone, his sister Ellie Levin (Howard), daughter Deborah Mooney (Shaun), son Robert (Amalia) and grandchildren Miriam and Marco.

There were several organizations that Mark cherished and supported. All of them have faced draconian cuts in national and Florida State funding. They are:

Arts Center of Sarasota (www.artsarasota.org);

Sarasota Contemporary Dance (www. sarasotacontemporarydance.org);

Artist Series Concerts of Sarasota (www.artistseriesconcerts.org);

La Musica Chamber Music (www.lamusica.org);

Sound Box Ventures (Max Tan) (www.soundboxventures.org);

Embracing Our Differences (www.embracingourdifferences.org);

WSLR+Fogartyville (www.wslr.org).

Contributions in Mark’s honor and memory would be much appreciated.