Dr. Angel K. Markov

1936 - 2020

Dr. Angel K. Markov

Jackson - Dr. Angel K. Markov passed away on January 4, 2020 at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson. Dr. Markov was born in Elena, Bulgaria on June 13, 1936. He escaped from Bulgaria in 1958, fleeing the post-WWII communist regime. After living as a refugee in Greece for nine months, he was granted political asylum by the United States and moved into a Bulgarian Orthodox church in New York City with ten cents in his pocket. He learned English in three months by going to movies each day, and earned money driving taxi cabs and washing dishes. When he became a US citizen, his first permanent address was his sailboat anchored in the waters near the Statue of Liberty.

With an electrical engineering degree earned with honors in Bulgaria, he began working in a medical lab in New Jersey, where he met his future mentors, Dr. Patrick Lehan and Dr. Harper Hellems. Inspired by them, he decided to attend medical school at the University of Louvain in Belgium, where he obtained his medical degree with high honors and received the Société Parisienne D'Expansion Chimique award, which is a prestigious award granted to the medical faculty's selection of the top student. On his first day there, he met and fell in love with Françoise, his wife of 45 years. Together, they moved to Jackson, Mississippi in 1972, to join his mentors at UMMC. He specialized in cardiology, and eventually became a Professor of Medicine. While he trained and mentored many students, his true passion was his medical research, which focused in large part on the many uses of fructose-1, 6-diphosphate. Dr. Markov authored over 200 publications in the field of cardiology, received 17 research grants from various associations (including the NIH, American Heart Association, Mississippi Heart Association, and U.S. Army Medical Research & Development Command), made 77 presentations at scientific meetings of various societies (including the Society of Nuclear Medicine, American Heart Association, and American College of Cardiology), and was issued nine patents by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. After a successful 45-year career at UMMC, Dr. Markov retired as a Professor Emeritus.

Dr. Markov is survived by his wife Françoise, son Kroum, and daughters Muriel, Alexandra, and Tatiana. He is also survived by seven grandchildren: Nicholas, Adrian, Augustus, Maxwell, Victoria, Elena, and Elvis. And not to forget his faithful dog, Lena.

The family will greet friends at Parkway Funeral Home, 1161 Highland Colony Parkway, in Ridgeland, MS, on Tuesday, January 7 from 5:00 to 7:00 pm, and again on Wednesday, January 8 beginning at 10:00 am until the time of the ceremony at 11:00 am.