Ufkes, Mark L., 1955-

Biographical note

Mark L. Ufkes was born in 1955 and grew up in the Tri-Cities, Washington state, where his father, Leon Ufkes, worked at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. He earned three degrees from Washington State University in Pullman: a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1977, a bachelor’s degree in agricultural economics in 1985, and a master's degree in adult education in 1987. He later also earned a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard University in 1994. In 1991, he and Lois A. Schipper were married. In 1992, Ufkes directed efforts in five newly established, culturally based governments in former Soviet Central Asia, to promote private sector investment and trade. In the late 1990s, he started Hanford Reach Columbia River Tours, a business offering jet boat tours on the Columbia River in the Hanford Reach. In 2005, he began working with Indian River Development Services, an organization that provides strategic and business consultation to Tribal governments. In the mid-2010s, he also served as Executive Director for the Quileute Tribe on First Beach, in La Push, Washington.

Sources: Vital records in Ancestry.com; information provided by Ufkes in his interview; "Jet Boat Skippers Starting to Offer Reach Tours," by John Stang, Tri-City Herald, June 13, 1996, Page C1;"Tri-City Riverboat Competition Heating Up," by Mike Lee, Tri-City Herald, May 24, 1998, Page A8; “Candy Mountain seller grateful for new park,” by Wendy Culverwell, May 3, 2016, Tri-City Herald; "Remembering Leon B. Ufkes, 1926-2023," West Seattle Blog, December 15, 2023 (accessed February 2026), https://westseattleblog.com/2023/12/remembering-leon-b-ufkes-1926-2023/; "Classmate Notes," ReConnect, 2015, Page 23 (accessed February 2026), https://wpcdn.web.wsu.edu/cahnrs/uploads/sites/4/ReConnect15-low.pdf; Ufkes’s profile on LinkedIn.com.

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