Mark O. August's Obituary
Mark Octavius August was born on 18 May 1953 in Cape Town, South Africa. At the age of six he moved to Malawi with his mother and stepfather where he grew up and went to school. Mark’s career as a journalist started in Malawi in the early 70’s when he joined the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) as a producer. He enjoyed writing and had a natural gift of the local African languages and dialects and mastered seven international languages. This must have driven him to join the print media in South Africa and Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) during the difficult independence struggles of those countries. Mark also worked in England and France as the editor of the New Africa Magazine before crossing the Atlantic to the United States of America. In the US He worked for several newspapers in New York and Chicago, respectively, before settling in Tampa, Florida where he was an editor at the Tampa Tribune and later as a freelance writer. During his distinguished career Mark trotted the globe, mostly in the troubled spots of Europe, Middle East and Africa, covering and writing stories for the organisations he worked for.
Mark suffered a severe stroke in July 2008 while living at Laurel Cove Circle, Odessa, Tampa. He spent some months in hospital. After his discharge from hospital, he spent the rest of his life at the Advanced Rehabilitation and Health Centre in Clearwater from where he was taken ill to hospital on Wednesday 16 June 2021. He died in the early hours of Thursday 17 June 2021. Mark is survived by his adopted daughter Margaret and two siblings, Faith and Henry and nieces, nephews and cousins.
Service will be available via Live Stream:
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