This 11” x 11” museum quality coffee table book features 83 color, and black & white images (photos, paintings, even a comic strip) of specific places, events and people that helped mold Reno and our surroundings through our recent history, up to and including what we are becoming today.
Each image is accompanied by one or two short personal stories by Renoites past and present, including former Governor Brian Sandoval, internationally-known wildlife photographer Diane McAllister, Brian Crane, Chris Ault & Chris Vargas, Norman Dianda, Truckee teenager Ashley Parisi, Dr. L. Martina Young, and many more. The stories are as varied as the writers’ lives suggest.
Despite spending 30+ years as a Reno advertising agency writer/creative director and having authored a previous book, Mark refers to himself not as ONE OF A KIND’S author, but its “Chief editor and compiler.” He and friend Greg Ferraro approached, convinced, cajoled, and worked with friends, friends’ friends and new acquaintances to produce the book’s 94 stories. Ron Taft, Mark’s original partner in the advertising business, designed the book.
Aside from several years in Seattle, Columbia, Missouri and Las Vegas, Mark has always lived in Reno. During his years in the advertising business, he was also a civic activist and arts advocate. The recipient of a slew of creative awards, he was Co-Adman of the Year in 1981, and was the 2015 recipient of the Thomas C. Wilson Lifetime Achievement Award.
In 1989, Mark became a founding member of the Reno’s first arts commission, and in 1995 conceived and co-founded Uptown Downtown Artown (later Artown), He received the 2000 Shakespeare Award from Sierra Arts and the Arts Consortium for “sustained excellence in support of the arts.”