Jerome Markson (1929-2023). Photo by Laura Miller
I was privileged to work with Jerome Markson for over thirty years, first as an employee and later as a partner with Jerry and Ernie Hodgson. Over the years, I appreciated Jerry?s many qualities?not just as an architect and mentor, but as a kind, compassionate and generous colleague and friend. He was a consummate human being, a true prince among men. Others have written about Jerry?s work in much more authoritative ways than I can; I will focus on our years together in getting things built. Jerry would have like that: he disliked intellectualized discourse about architecture when simple words and ordinary language would suffice. He liked to quote some of Mies van der Rohe?s aphorisms: ?Build, don?t talk?; ?I don?t want to be interesting, I want to be good?; and ?I don?t want to invent a new architecture every Monday morning.? For Jerry, Architecture was not spelled with a capital A, but with the letter P, for the needs of the people, and C for the contextual opportunities and constraints of the site. His buildings were a reflection of the people who were going to live in and occupy them?whether it was his own whimsical ?shack in the bush? (his cottage in the country) or the formal responsibilities of an infill building on an existing city street.
Jerry?s thinking was deeply affected by the work of his father, Charles Markson, a doctor who genuinely cared about his patients,

including families and seniors. As a result, Jerr...