In Our Thoughts and Prayers

The Catholic Relief Services family is saddened to report the death of our dear friend and colleague Mark Snyder, who for the past four years has led the CRS program in Sudan.

Mark contracted malaria in Sudan and became seriously ill while on leave with his family in Peru. He passed away Wednesday, July 29 as he was being treated at a hospital in Lima.

Over the past decade and a half, Mark took on a number of key assignments for CRS, first in Latin America and most recently in Sudan. Mark joined CRS in November 1993 as a project manager in Peru. He served as a project manager and acting country representative for the CRS Ecuador and Colombia program before becoming country representative in Nicaragua, where he served for five years, followed by four years as country representative back in Peru.

Four years ago, Mark took on an especially complex and sensitive assignment as country representative for Sudan. His steady hand guided staff and partners alike through a critical and tumultuous period in Sudan, one of CRS' most challenging operating environments, where the agency manages humanitarian aid, reconstruction and peacebuilding activities to hundreds of thousands of Sudanese in Darfur, the Khartoum area and throughout the south.

Mark's work in Sudan became much more complicated in recent months as he oversaw the expansion of CRS work in West Darfur to cover gaps in humanitarian assistance after the expulsion of several international aid agencies this past spring. This involved the logistical challenge of more than doubling the number of people CRS aids in Darfur to more than 400,000, providing them with lifesaving food, water and other services.

A Lifelong Calling

Mark's career in international development work started at a young age. Having grown up in Fort Worth, Texas, and Franklin, Pennsylvania, Mark moved to northern Peru shortly after high school with support from the Diocese of Dallas. Over the next six years he worked as a lay missionary in a rural Catholic parish in the Diocese of Chulucanas, supported community health programs in the northern highlands and trained as a physician's assistant.

In 1982, Mark returned to the United States to complete his university studies, graduating Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California at Santa Cruz with majors in Latin American studies and social psychology. Three years later, he received a master's degree in public health from Peru's Universidad Cayetano Heredia (UPCH). During this time, Mark continued to work in community health with the Peruvian Bishop's Commission for Social Action, Servicios Educativos Rurales and UPCH until joining CRS in 1993.

As the words of condolences stream in from Mark's colleagues and peers in the aid community in Sudan and from around the world, the portrait emerges of a leader whose steadfastness, patience and commitment to CRS' mission lifted up and inspired those around him.

The thoughts and prayers of the CRS family are with Mark, his wife and their three children.