Stephen Gum Mark, Chinese American and 1914 San Rafael High School Graduate with Gift of Oratory
By Carol Acquaviva
In 1914, Stephen Gum Mark graduated from San Rafael High School with honors, and as the only Chinese person in his class. At commencement, he gave a speech titled “Education of Chinese in America.” The Marin Journal hailed it as “the best of the student speeches,” and described his oration as “deep in meaning and significance, wide in range of vocabulary, and clear in enunciation.” The Journal reported that the “efforts of the Chinese boy were greeted with storms of applause.”
The Marin County Tocsin newspaper also praised the presentation, and predicted Stephen’s ensuing success.
That the young man had given a great deal of thought and study to the subject was evidenced by the manner and ease with which he handled it. Mark will be heard from in the future as a man of power, whether this or in his own country, may be seen.
Stephen Gum Mark was born in Stockton, California in 1893 to Chinese parents. After San Rafael High School, he attended UC Berkeley where he studied chemistry and military science, graduating in 1920. During his college days, he twice won first prize in “English oratorical contests,” and frequently covered topics on Chinese culture and history. While a student, he was in the United States Reserve Officers’ training corps and was a major and battalion commander in the university unit. Stephen, like many men his age, took a pause from his studies due to World War I, and served as a sergeant in the Army at Camp Lewis, Washington.
In April 1921, Stephen returned to San Rafael, to address a local bankers’ association. His speech was titled “China and the World Situation,” and the newspaper lauded him as a “brilliant young man.”
In fact, Mark continued to speak before professional and social groups and at church functions, and was well regarded not only for his communication skills, but for the depth of his knowledge on Chinese and world affairs.
In the summer of 1921, at the request of Donaldina Cameron — head of the Presbyterian Chinese Girls’ Home in San Francisco — Stephen established a new church and school, the Chinese Church of Christ, also known as a Chinese Methodist Mission, in Mexicali, Mexico. Stephen served as superintendent, and taught English there, before resuming his studies at the San Francisco Presbyterian Seminary in San Anselmo, graduating in 1923 with a Bachelor of Divinity degree.
Upon his ordination at the First Presbyterian Church in Berkeley, it was noted that Rev. Mark was the “first American-born Chinese student to be ordained in the Presbyterian ministry.” That same year, he traveled to China to teach at the Canton Union Theological College, and also serve as pastor at the Independent Chinese Presbyterian Church. His exceptional teaching skills and ability to communicate to younger people were put to good use as he was also the provincial secretary of the Chinese Students’ Volunteer Movement for the Ministry.
In 1926, Stephen accepted a position as pastor at the Beretania Chinese church in Hawaii, but returned to China two years later to resume teaching there.
Stephen was again invited back to San Rafael in 1934, this time by his alma mater, to speak to San Rafael High School students. The Santa Rosa Press Democrat reported on his accomplishments:
His talk interested his hearers greatly as he is a keen student of Chinese affairs. For the past 11 years he has been principal of a girls’ school [True Light Middle School] in Canton.
Simultaneous to his running the True Light Middle School, Stephen was principal of the Shung Kei Bible training school for women, also in Canton. He also organized the first “girls’ first aid corps” in China, a program that served as a model implemented in subsequent schools throughout southwest China.
In February 1944, during a presentation as part of an adult education series, Stephen commented on the American view of Chinese people. “Americans like Chinese individually, they always say, but they apparently are afraid of them en masse.”
In the mid-1940s, Stephen studied at the Union Theological Seminary and Columbia University in New York, earning a master’s degree in theology. Later, he continued studies at Andover Newton Theological Seminary, near Boston, working on a doctoral thesis regarding ethics and values in Chinese drama. When he died at his home in Hawaii in 1966, Reverend Stephen Gum Mark was a beloved minister at the Community Church in Honolulu, where he had previously served as the church’s first pastor in 1936.
Stephen’s career and life paths were in tandem from a young age. While still in seminary, Stephen gave a speech to young people at the Stockton YMCA. The title of his speech was “Heavy Personal Baggage on the Road of Life.” He advised the crowd: “Let the spirit of service to humanity, rather than selfish aims, determine your choice of vocation.”
