Introduction

Biography

Aaron was the son of John Aar­on Mar­ku­son and Em­ma Nils­son, and hus­band of Mar­ga­ret Gu­sar­son (mar­ried 1940).

Aaron was con­vert­ed and or­dained at the First Co­ve­nant Church in Rock­ford, Illinois.

He at­tended North Park Jun­ior College (1935); North Park Theo­lo­gic­al Se­mi­na­ry, Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois (1937); and Tufts Uni­ver­si­ty and the Crane School of Re­li­gion, Med­ford, Mas­sa­chu­setts (1945). He re­ceived an hon­or­ary Doc­tor of Di­vi­ni­ty from North Park Theo­lo­gic­al Se­mi­na­ry in 1999.

He served at a number of locations, including:

• Salem, South Da­ko­ta (1935–36)
• Winnetka, Il­li­nois (1937–42)
• Cambridge, Mas­sa­chu­setts (1942–51)
• Bethany Co­ve­nant Church, Rich­field, Min­ne­so­ta (1970–75)
• Bethlehem Co­ve­nant Church, Min­ne­ap­olis, Min­ne­so­ta (in­ter­im pas­tor, 1975–76)
• Montecito Co­ve­nant Church, San­ta Bar­bara, Ca­li­for­nia (1982)
• First Co­ve­nant Church, Se­at­tle, Wash­ing­ton (1981–82, 1990–91 & 1995–96)

He al­so served as ex­e­cu­tive sec­re­ta­ry for the De­part­ment of Chris­tian Edu­ca­tion of the Ev­an­ge­li­cal Co­ve­nant Church (ECC) (1951–70); on the Ex­ec­u­tive Com­mit­tee of the Unit­ed States Ge­ne­ral Com­mis­sion on Chap­lains in the 1960s; and as first cha­plain of the Co­ve­nant Shores Re­tire­ment Com­mu­ni­ty, Mer­cer Is­land, Wash­ing­ton.

In the 1920’s Mar­ku­son worked as an an­nounc­er for KFLV ra­dio. Lat­er, at ECC head­quar­ters, he helped establish CHIC, a tri­en­ni­al na­tion­al con­fer­ence for ECC high school stu­dents.