Mark and Marcia Ellingson papers

Mark Ellingson (1904-1993) served as the fifth president of the Rochester Institute of Technology from 1936 through 1969. Mark originally joined the Rochester Athenaeum and Mechanics Institute in 1926 as a faculty member and served as an economics instructor and the first director of the School of Photography. In 1936, Mark became president of RAMI, which was renamed to the Rochester Institute of Technology during his tenure. Over 33 years, Mark transformed RIT in numerous ways, including increasing its enrollment, receiving accreditation, bringing to campus the Empire School of Printing and School for American Crafts, and overseeing the move from downtown and the construction of the Henrietta campus. He retired in 1969 but continued to be active within the RIT community and Rochester-area organizations for the rest of his life. Mark passed away on February 13, 1993.

Marcia Cooke Randall (1911-1993) was the middle daughter of John A. Randall (fourth president of the institute) and Alice Gertrude Cooke Randall. Marcia married Mark Ellingson in 1934; the following year, she graduated from Ohio State University with a B.S. in Education. The Ellingsons had three daughters and a son. Marcia, heavily involved in the RIT community as well as various Rochester-area civic and social organizations, remained a strong partner to Mark throughout his years at RIT. Marcia was an early supporter of women’s rights and worked to bring civil rights to women and minorities throughout the twentieth century. In 1970, Marcia was appointed to the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services, where she helped to provide recommendations to improve the treatment of women in the military. She was a prolific documentarian of her husband and family, amassing news clippings, photographs, and ephemera which she later compiled into scrapbooks. She passed away on April 13, 1993.