Tom was born on May 29, 1940 in Dayton, Ohio and left us on August 17, 2022 from Tucson, Arizona.
Thomas’ parents were Dr. Robert Cline Markey and Mary Elizabeth Meredith Markey. Tom has a younger sister, Priscilla, who remembers being teased by older brother Tom!
Thomas and Patricia married in 1974 and are blessed with a son, Tynan Markey. Thomas also has a daughter, Jessica, from a previous marriage.
Thomas had a boundless love of learning and a very inquisitive mind. His education was extensive:
● University College London (Commonwealth Fellow)
● Hamilton College (B.A. in Classics and English), 1962
● Yale University (graduate studies in Linguistics)
● University of Chicago (M.A. in Scandinavian and German)
● Linguistic Society of America, Summer Linguistic Institute (UCLA)
● Uppsala University
● Research Fellow, Peterhouse College, Cambridge University
● Ph.D. (nordiska språk / Scandinavian linguistics), Uppsala University, Sweden
Professor Markey began his professional career as a teaching assistant at Harvard. Thomas Markey had many teaching positions through the years, completing his teaching career as Professor in the departments of German and Linguistics at the University of Michigan. His curriculum vitae (vita or academic resume) is 18 pages long, consisting primarily of a list of his publications. He was researching and writing “The Extinction Vortex” at the time of his death.
Thomas traveled widely with curiosity and care for people and their language and culture. He was fluent in many languages, which came easy to him. This was partly because he understood that communication isn't perfect, and it was more important to try to understand people than worry about making mistakes. For example, he learned Icelandic while working on a herring fishing boat during the summer while he was a student, making friends along the way.
Thomas and Patricia decided to retire to Tucson from Ann Arbor in 1994. He had been to Tucson as a child and had friends who were teaching and doing research at the University of Arizona.
As Tom aged and energetically dealt with various cancers he faced his mortality in part by returning to his Quaker roots. Thomas' mother's family were Quaker, and his parents attended Earlham College in Indiana. Still, Tom asked for a Clearness Committee; he wanted to consider deep, hard questions about his faith.
At his memorial service, one of the members of his clearness committee wrote the following message:
Thomas was a lapsed Quaker. He came to Friends at Pima Monthly Meeting as a lifelong “Seeker” that enriched our meeting. I was grateful to serve on Thomas’ Clearness for Membership Committee to reawaken his Quaker Spirit which was very much still alive! Wonderful human being that I will miss.
Tom’s pioneering spirit may have been present as Pima Meeting conducted its first attempt at holding a hybrid memorial meeting that included friends in person at the Meetinghouse and many friends and colleagues from around the world who shared memories using online connections.
Thomas L. Markey is missed.
Approved at Meeting for Worship with a Concern for Business, 14th day, Fifth Month, 2023