Mark Stephen Shields

1937 - 2022

Shields

Mark Stephen Shields

Mark Stephen Shields died at his home in Chevy Chase, Maryland on June 18, 2022. The cause of death was complications of kidney failure. He was 85.



Mark was born on May 25, 1937, in South Weymouth, Massachusetts where he graduated from high school and then went on to graduate as a philosophy major from the University of Notre Dame in 1959. He continued to root for all Notre Dame teams, especially the women, throughout his life and was proud to have given the commencement address to the graduating class of 1997. Throughout his career, he was awarded 12 honorary doctorates but the one he treasured most was from Notre Dame.



He joined the Marine Corps after college as an enlisted man and managed to get all the way to Private First Class before he was honorably discharged in 1966. He gave his parents, Notre Dame, and the Marine Corps most of the credit for instilling in him the values by which he lived his life.



He became a voracious student as a young boy of both politics and journalism and he went on to become a skilled practitioner of both arts. He worked in and managed many campaigns of politicians for public office, including John J. Gilligan's successful campaign for Governor of Ohio in 1970, and several presidential campaigns including those of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Edmund Muskie, and Morris Udall. He valued politics and politicians and was a "walking encyclopedia" of political history.



Learning that campaign management was a young man's game, he turned to journalism in the 80s, becoming a valued analyst of the business he had once practiced. He joined the editorial board of the Washington Post in 1979. He was a sought after speaker for both academic institutions and business groups and appeared on many political television shows including CNN's Capital Gang, Inside Washington, and for 33 years as a regular political commentator on PBS's Newshour. His newspaper column was syndicated by Creator's Syndicate and he was the author of one book "On the Campaign Trail", a collection of his columns on the 1984 Presidential campaign. He retired after the end of the campaign of 2020, when his kidney disease had become more acute, grateful that the American people had had the wisdom to defeat the worst president ever elected in American history.



Mark was active in his local parish, serving as an usher at Blessed Sacrament, and many local charities, including the Spina Bifida Foundation, the Washington Ireland Program and So Others Might Eat, where he was a member of the board of directors. He was recognized as a Washingtonian of the Year in 2003.



Mark kept his wife Anne Hudson Shields laughing for 55 years and was very beloved by his daughter Amy Shields Doyle; his son-in-law Christo; his grandchildren Jack and Frances; and 17 treasured nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his parents; his brother Tom Shields; and his sister Ann Ryan. Mark left behind a large coterie of fans and friends, from those at the highest level of public service to those whom he met, spent time with, and worked with and loved.



There will be a funeral mass at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament, 3630 Quesada St., Washington, D.C., at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, June 22. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to So Others Might Eat (SOME) or the William and Mary Shields scholarship fund at the University of Notre Dame which Mark established for students first in their families to go to college.