Mark L. Travis ’79

Mark L. Travis ’79, of Canterbury, N.H.; Nov. 2, following a rapidly progressive infection. Years earlier he was diagnosed with leukemia, undergoing chemotherapy and ultimately a bone marrow transplant. After college, he was a reporter at the Concord Monitor, working part-time and covering Pittsfield, New Hampshire. Shortly afterward, he moved to Lebanon (N.H.) to work as a reporter and regional editor for the Valley News. In 1983, he and his wife moved to Florida, where he worked at the St. Petersburg Times, first as a reporter and then as a bureau chief. In 1986, he returned to the Concord Monitor as a reporter, editor, and mentor for young reporters and launched several new publications, including the Concord Insider. He was awarded a journalism fellowship with the Nieman Foundation in 2002 and moved to Cambridge, where he spent an academic year at Harvard. In 2008, he became publisher of the Valley News and was diagnosed, but continued to serve as publisher until 2013, when he was named publisher of the Concord Monitor. A year later, he moved on from daily newspapers and joined an Upper Valley-based tech startup bringing local news into the digital age. He spent five years with the startup and in 2019 became a ghostwriter at Scribe Media. He retired in June of 2023. He was a member of the Canterbury Town History Book Committee and edited the town newsletter. He was also an active member of the Canterbury United Community Church, a volunteer at the annual Canterbury town fair, and a Canterbury cemetery keeper. He is survived by his wife, Brenda; daughter Leanna Travis ’22 MD; a son and daughter-in-law; and two grandchildren.