To his daughter, Charles Deroy Marks exemplified what it means to be a Black man in Baltimore.

He started with little and overcame a lot. He taught his children to be proud of their Blackness and remember their history. He created opportunities for himself over and over again, by running an arcade, operating a pool hall or entering the construction industry. He was a family man, especially after having grandchildren, and showed loved ones what it means to change and grow with time, they said.

“He built an unexpected life, and he lived it in an extraordinarily unique manner,” said his daughter, Robyn Murphy, the CEO of Create Baltimore.

Even his death at age 85 — exceeding the life expectancy for Black men by over a decade — was “just so him,” she said. Marks, also a lover of Black literature and art, died March 4 of complications from dementia.

He was born in Baltimore on Feb. 20, 1941, the fourth of Woodson and Ethel Marks’ 10 children. The siblings — five girls and five boys — stayed close all their lives. Though Marks didn’t finish high school, he loved to read, visit museums and learn new skills, Murphy said.

He had a daughter, Vicky Stewart, when he was 19. He wasn’t often present when she was young, Stewart said, but became very involved in her life after her mother died when she was 8 years old. He brought her to amusement parks and the beach, helped her pick out books at the library and showed her the best seafood spots.

“He loved his girls, so I was a daddy’s girl,” Stewart said. “He gave me any and everything I wanted and took me on trips. There wasn’t nothing that I couldn’t get from him.”

He started a career at Bethlehem Steel, where his father also worked, in the 1960s. After realizing that it wasn’t the right place for him, he started looking for business opportunities and became a “serial entrepreneur,” Murphy said.

He owned a pool hall and bar in East Baltimore in the 1970s, then a corner store and video arcade in Sandtown-Winchester in the 1980s after a short stint in Los Angeles.

Around the same time, his family grew: He met Carol Matthews, and they had two more children, Murphy and Woodson Marks. The couple married in 1976. Though they later divorced (and remarried, and divorced again), they remained lifelong friends.

When Murphy was young, her father, she said, “wasn’t always physically present, but he was omnipresent.”

Marks was a fun dad, Murphy said, who prioritized giving his kids a strong understanding of their history and their relationship with the world. He taught her how to play chess when she was a toddler and pushed her to read political biographies when she was in grade school.

He’d take his children to hibachi grills or Ethiopian restaurants to try new foods and explore new cultures. He took Murphy to her first Artscape — a festival she now runs — and taught her the importance of supporting local artists.

“He was always steady in the way that he wanted us to have new and different experiences,” she said.

And he never missed an opportunity to educate them on Black history. His favorite book was Malcolm X’s autobiography, but he was interested in almost any story of Black liberation or the Black experience, Murphy said.

“He was probably the most well-read person that I knew that could talk to you both on a Baltimore street level and an intellectual level and make it all feel good,” she said. “He was just a true Baltimore everyman.”

Her husband, Jason Murphy, said Marks’ passion and knowledge helped him become more “aware, as a Black man, of where you need to stand and how you need to guide your life … and be able to protect your family.”

Taking care of loved ones was Marks’ No. 1 priority. He reminded Jason Murphy often that his daughter deserved the best, and he refused any time they tried to pay for dinner. A humble man who didn’t need to be the center of attention, Marks “lived the life that he wanted,” his son-in-law said.

“He was never attached to a house because he would get another house,” he said. “He was never attached to a car because he would get another car. The main thing he valued was family.”

That was never more apparent than when he became a grandfather. He treasured walks with his first grandchild, also named Jason Murphy, and taking him to the toy store or an Orioles game. He was shucking oysters for his granddaughter when she was a toddler.

“He would come get them and just take them out for evenings and treat them to everything, anything they wanted,” his son-in-law said.

As the younger Jason grew older, he stayed close to his grandfather, he said. He visited Marks at the nursing home with an “entry fee” of Royal Farms fried chicken, potato wedges, Lay’s potato chips and a Pepsi.

He valued everything he learned from Marks, whether a literal fun fact, maybe about music or sports, or a life lesson about the importance of hard work.

“He was just somebody that knew a little bit about everything,” he said. “He was a know-it-all, in a good way.”

Marks’ health only started to decline after a stroke a few years ago. Before then, he was an avid runner and cyclist for most of his life. He worked until 2018, when he retired from his job as a foreman and site inspector at Clark Construction.

But even as dementia took hold, he was true to himself to the very end.

The last time his son-in-law saw him in hospice, Marks held up a Black Power fist — a moment, Jason Murphy said, that felt like Marks was passing the torch to him.

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