CONCORD, Calif. – After a brief illness, Mark Walker died peacefully on Oct. 4, with his loving family around him at his home in Concord, Calif.

He was born in New Portland, Maine, Aug. 19, 1919, son of the late Josephine Moulton and Cephas Walker. He was a graduate of Good Will-Hinckley School in Hinckley, Maine.

Retired in 1984, Mark worked at many trades, concluding his career as an electrical consultant to the Aluminum Association of America, organizing trade shows and editing technical publications. He moved to Concord in 1987.

Mark authored a novel of suspense fiction, as well as plays produced off-Broadway and in regional theater, and wrote two memoirs. “Maine Roots: Growing Up Poor in the Kennebec Valley,” an account of his upbringing in rural Maine, was named the best-selling Maine book of 1994 and 1995 by the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance.

His second memoir, “Working for Utopia 1937-1953,” published in 2000, was declared an important document by labor historians. It recounts hard times as a young man during the Great Depression, his activism as a socialist and union organizer, and as a merchant seaman in World War II.

Mark also co-authored Dreiser’s “‘Other Self’: The Life of Arthur Henry,” with his wife of 62 years, Maggie. Published in 2005, this biography of Henry, Maggie’s grandfather and close friend and mentor of the famous author, was praised by Dreiser scholars for adding new insight into his life and literary development.

He was a member of the Dramatists Guild, the National Writers Union, and the IBEW, and was active in the San Francisco Bay Area Labor Workshop.

Mark will be dearly remembered by his family, friends, and his many readers as a kind, thoughtful and humorous man who lived his life fully.

He is survived by his wife, Maggie; two sons, Michael and Timothy; two daughters, Ann Walker and Sue Walker Honey; three grandsons, Kendrick, Phillip and Dana; one sister, Marianne Corley; three half-brothers, Stanley, Tom and Wayne Walker; a half-sister, Carol Anne Weinhold; and several nieces and nephews.