By Dominic LoVallo
Editor-in-Chief
A former adjunct professor at St. Bonaventure was posthumously inducted into the Buffalo Broadcasters Hall of Fame last night.
Ray Markiewicz, better known as Ray Marks, died in February of 2015 at the age of 70. He died after an almost two-year battle with leukemia. Before his death, Marks built an impressive resume.
He began working at a radio station when he was 15 years old. Marks – a high school dropout – would go on to host radio segments and become the news director at stations including WJTN in Jamestown and WGR and WBEN in Buffalo. Now, Marks is known throughout the Western New York broadcast industry.
“Ray was a broadcasting legend in Western New York, and most of what he did, most of his legendary status quite frankly came behind the scenes,” said Steve Reska, president of the Buffalo Broadcasters Association. “He was a mentor to most of the big-name broadcast journalists in this town and a number of them out of town.”
One broadcaster that worked with Marks was Eileen Buckley. Buckley, who is currently a senior reporter at WBFO, the NPR station in Buffalo, remembers Marks as someone who wanted to make the newsroom enjoyable.
“He was always a happy, positive newsman to work with,” said Buckley. “As far as a coworker… he was always upbeat and positive and just kind of cheerful. He liked to make you laugh.”
Buckley said Marks was not only well-liked in a newsroom, but he was “fluid” and amazing on the air.
When Marks first began as an adjunct at St. Bonaventure, Lee Coppola, a 2012 inductee into the Hall of Fame, was dean of the then school of journalism and mass communication.
“He was very congenial, very cooperative and very willing to make the drive from his home in the Buffalo area to St. Bonaventure,” said Coppola.
When Marks began teaching at Bonaventure, Coppola saw something that really stuck with him.
“He cared about the students,” said Coppola. “He didn’t have to stay after class, but he did on more than one occasion, on several occasions to give kind of like personal coaching tips to the students who were really interested in going into a broadcast career. So, he cared about the students, he cared about – from my vantage point – he cared about journalism, and to me that meant the most.”
Marks was honored with the Broadcasters Memorial Award for his induction. Something Reska wants people to know, is no small feat.
“The Broadcasters Hall of Fame truly is the cream of the crop of broadcasters in Western New York,” said Reska. “Whether it’s Ray Marks who unfortunately passed away [two years ago] or the other inductees… they are the people who really made a difference in Western New York broadcasting and quite frankly, these are the people up and coming broadcasters need to measure themselves against.”
Summarizing Marks in a few words was not easy for Buckley, but because she wrote a script for Marks’ induction, she did her best to describe him.
“Professionalism, mentoring generations to come into the business, giving his time, he was a thoughtful broadcaster, Ray was about democracy and fighting for people who didn’t have a voice,” said Buckley.
Marks not only joins Coppola, but Bob Koop, namesake of the Koop Broadcasting Lab on the first floor of the Murphy Professional Building, in the Hall of Fame.
Every year since 2008, the Buffalo Broadcasters Association has honored broadcasters in the field. Four years in a row, St. Bonaventure University alumni were recognized with the Tim Russert Medal of Merit.
Danny Bush Jr., ’13, Shannon Shepherd, ’12, Lauren Adams, ’11 and Amanda Ciavarri, ’10 all received that honor.
lovalldv15@bonaventure.edu
