Mark Trent Goldberg -- Executive Director of the Ira Gershwin Trust

 

Mark Trent Goldberg was born on February 16, 1956 in Los Altos, California.  He was the oldest of three children born to Gene Gillis Goldberg and Mary Conceicao Furtado Goldberg.  Gene was the Superintendent of Recreation for the cities of Los Gatos and Saratoga, California, and was a native of San Bernardino, California.  Mary was a native of San Joaquin County, California.  Mark was a descendant of Starkie Thomas.

Mark’s siblings were two sisters, Keri G. Goldberg, born in 1959 and married William J. James and Taryn Gae Goldberg, born in 1960 and married William J. Stiers.

Mark grew up in San Jose, California where he played the oboe in the school band at Prospect High School.  He loved going with his parents to San Francisco to see road company productions of Broadway musicals and plays.  This led him to attend the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) where he majored in theatre and aspired to have an acting career.  He graduated from UCLA with his teaching credentials specializing in early childhood education in addition to his degree in theatre.

In the 1980s during his years at UCLA, Mark became friends with Michael Feinstein, the singer and pianist known for his renditions of the songs of George and his brother Ira Gershwin.  In 1983 Michael introduced him to Ira Gershwin and his wife, Leonore. By this time, Mark had appeared in several Los Angeles stage productions and was headed for a future in the theater.  When Ira Gershwin died in late 1983, his wife, Leonore, asked Mark to work with her full time in managing the archives of the Gershwin musical works.  Mark made the difficult decision to give up his acting career, but felt the Gershwin job was a wonderful opportunity.

As executive director of the Ira and Leonore Gershwin Trust, Mark was charged with keeping the Gershwin flame alive. He maintained the huge Gershwin archive of clippings and music, issued new recordings of their works and helped scholars with his storehouse of knowledge. “Mark also created the Gershwin archive, which includes music manuscripts, photographs, royalty statements and other items linked to lyricist Ira Gershwin and his brother, composer George Gershwin.  The two brothers wrote some of the best-known music performed in Broadway musicals in the early part of the twentieth century.  His work on the Gershwin legacy was also his passion as he helped to create and fund the Gershwin Room, a permanent exhibit space in the Library of Congress.

In 2000, the offices for the archives moved from Los Angeles to San Francisco, where Mark settled in the hills of Burlingame in a home that he designed.  On the morning of May 18, 2005, Mark stretched out on his office couch in his San Francisco office after complaining of being tired from a trip. Mark had suffered a heart attack and died unexpectedly there in his office at the age of 49.

Mark was buried In the Cemetery Gate of Heaven in Los Altos, California. Mark was single.

 

LINEAGE:

(Mark Trent Goldberg was the son of Gene Gillis and Mary Conceicao Furtado Goldberg.  Gene was the son of David Maxwell and Clara Blakely Pilkinton Goldberg.  Clara was the daughter of Samuel Freeman and Sarah Adeline Thomas Baker.  Sarah was the daughter of Stanley and Emily Ann Light Thomas.  Stanley was the second child of Starkie and Mary Bridges Thomas.  Starkie was the fourth child of James Mary Standley Thomas.)

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