Dr. Gerald Joseph Marks

Gerald Joseph Marks, of Narberth, PA and Delray Beach, FL, passed away peacefully Saturday, January 31, 2026, at his home in Delray Beach. His remarkable life spanned 100 years of accomplishment as a world-renowned surgeon, acclaimed artist, veteran of two wars, husband, and father. He brought a dedicated work ethic and a strong moral compass to his work, art and life. He loved conversations with friends and enjoyed practicing his version of that art with a wide network of friends on two continents. He was also an avid tennis player and golfer.

Jerry was born April 14, 1925, in Brooklyn and spent his childhood years growing up in various homes in West and South Philadelphia with his mother Lee and stepfather Sam Marks. He was a child of the Depression and lived at times with his grandparents, often helping his grandfather with his hot dog stand at 4th and South St from the age of 10. He worked a variety of other jobs growing up, including in a linen shop, for his uncle in his candy store, as a soda jerk and an ice cream truck driver, and as a busboy at the Ambassador Hotel in Atlantic City.

During the years he lived at 58th and Beaumont, he was part of a group of friends that remained friends all his life—a group that achieved remarkable success for growing up in a poor Jewish neighborhood in West Philadelphia. Jerry attended West Philadelphia and John Bartram High Schools. He graduated from the latter, where he would recount that he specialized in jitterbugging. Without funds to attend college, he worked at the RCA Victor plant in Camden to fund one semester at Villanova.

He enlisted in the Navy in June 1943, where a key turning point in his life occurred. During boot camp, he was part of a nationwide examination. Based on the test results, he was offered the choice of attending the Naval Academy or going to medical school. He chose medical school, which meant attending Villanova as part of the Navy’s V12 program for accelerating medical education.

This started him on the path to his career as a groundbreaking surgeon. He graduated from Jefferson Medical College in 1949. After a stint as an Air Force officer in Korea, he started his career as a colorectal surgeon—a long and storied career that produced a variety of innovative techniques for treating colorectal cancer and a worldwide impact on the colorectal surgical community. He served as the Chief of the Division of Colorectal Surgery at Jefferson, where he practiced for 40 years, established a colorectal residency program and for which an endowed chair in his name now resides. He later practiced at Hahnemann and Lankenau.

His academic surgical accomplishments can be seen in every facet of the modern treatment of rectal cancer. These include the first use of a combined approach of radiation and surgery to rectal cancer at a time when this was considered to be malpractice. His work led to the development of two innovative surgical procedures that radically improve postoperative sphincter function and avoid the need for a colostomy. In 1969, he used his life savings to buy the first flexible colonoscope ever sold in the United States and went on to pioneer the use of the colonoscope in colorectal exams and surgery.

In 1980, he was the driving force behind the formation of the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES), serving as its first president and organizing its first meeting in Philadelphia in 1983. SAGES is now the leading organization for advancing surgical care of gastrointestinal or abdominal disease, with 7,000 members worldwide.

As the field of minimally invasive surgery exploded, Jerry was central to the formation of another society, the International Federation of Societies of Endoscopic Surgeons (IFSES) in 1992, where he served as the founding President. The creation of a colorectal surgical partnership between Jefferson and La Sapienza University hospital in Rome led to a lifelong love affair with Italy and an important transatlantic exchange of information and training. In addition to his society work, he was a driving force behind and one of the founding editors of Surgical Endoscopy, now the leading academic surgical journal in field of minimally invasive and endoscopic surgery.

He had the pleasure of his son John joining him in his colorectal surgical practice at Lankenau, where John followed Jerry’s lead in innovative surgical procedures, first with laparoscopic techniques and more recently with robotic colorectal surgery, continuing and expanding the legacy of academic leadership that Jerry started.

Jerry was fortunate enough to meet a nurse in the Jefferson operating room, Barbara Hendershot, whom he married in 1950 and was with for 63 years until her death in 2013. They welcomed sons Richard, Jim and John from 1959 to 1963. He bought a house on Fairview Road, in Penn Valley, in 1973 where he entertained frequently with Barbara and often played tennis with friends and family.

In his fifties, he rediscovered his boyhood interest in art and took up watercolor painting again. From then until nearly the end of his life, he pursued his passion for painting whenever he had a chance. Fortunately, this coincided with his participation in international surgical societies, affording him the opportunity to capture subject material from around the world for painting. In 1999, he introduced his first calendar featuring paintings from the past year. For the next two decades, friends and colleagues around the world would await that year’s calendar, which he usually inscribed with a personalized message. His last passion project was the 2025 publication of Ageless Art: The Special Joy of Watercolor Painting After 90, which, as the title promises, featured paintings he had done after the age of 90.

His was a larger-than-life personality, with a true gift for interconnection and a love of conversation that brought people from all walks of life into his ever-expanding community. He spent endless hours on the phone at all ages keeping up with friends and had a rare gift for engaging with his wit and insights that made them feel special and explains his long-lasting friendships with young and old alike across the world.

Jerry, who lost his beloved wife of 63 years, Barbara, in 2013, is survived by his sons: Richard (April), Jim (Palma) and John (Meredith); ten grandchildren and one great-granddaughter: Rebecca, Jacob (Muriel), Charlotte, Victoria, Julia, Caroline (Robert and daughter Georgina) Flaherty, Camille, William, Elizabeth, and Sarah. He is also survived by his loving partner Astrid Suurbeek and his brother Burton (Nancy).

Funeral Services will be held Thursday, Feb 5th at 11am at Main Line Reform Temple, 410 Montgomery Ave, Wynnewood, PA 19096. In lieu of flowers, contributions in his memory can be made to the Marks Colorectal Surgical Foundation (c/o Lankenau Hospital, 100 Lancaster Ave, MOB East Suite 653, Wynnewood, PA, 19096) to support research in colorectal surgery.

At the families request Interment will be private.