Joan Gail Marks

August 23, 1932 - August 5, 2025 Joan Gail Marks, 92, of Los Angeles passed away peacefully on August 5, 2025, in Broomfield, CO. Her final months and days were spent surrounded by her children and grandchildren.
She was the youngest of three children raised by Belle and Jay Liker. Joan lived in San Diego and Santa Barbara before the family resettled in Los Angeles. She attended UCLA and completed her bachelor's degree in education at LA State College in 1956. Joan was an elementary school teacher with LAUSD for over two decades.
Summer camp played a prominent role in her life. While a camp counselor at Lake Elsinore during her college years, she met her life partner, Jack Marks, who was escaping another hot summer in Boyle Heights. Their marriage soon followed. They teamed up with Bill and Diane Greene to run Camp Akela in Big Bear Lake for the next twenty years and later relocated Akela to Prescott, AZ with Jack's brother and his wife, Norm and Joan Marks. Camp Akela provided many special experiences and fostered lifelong bonds with counselors and campers, including marriages. Joan, camp name, "Jumpy," enjoyed her lunches spent with former campers well into her eighties and nineties. Camp Akela inspired TV sitcom episodes and Facebook Groups.
Joan is the last of her family's generation, preceded in death by her husband, Jack, brothers Marvin and Alan, and her Akela partners, Joan and Norm. Joan was cherished by her loving daughter, Jill Marks and Ella (dog) of Broomfield, CO; her loving son, Josh Marks and daughter-in-law Julie Tarnowski-Marks of Louisville, CO; her grandsons, Jay Gerhardt, and his partner Lydia Rilea, Isaac Marks and his wife Kelsey Balimtas, Ethan Marks and his partner, Libbey Endersbe; her large extended family of nieces and nephews, Lisa McEachron, Karen Liker, Darcy Liker, Keith Liker, Gary Marks, and Allison Marsh; and her great and great-great nieces and nephews. Arrangements are with Hillside Memorial Park. A private life celebration is being planned at this time. Joan's lasting legacy is being loved by so many and loving all until her final breath. Joan loved dogs and in her memory donations can be made to your local animal shelter/rescue or Humane Society.