UALR social-work educator dies at 76

Disillusioned with his job as a claims representative for the Social Security Administration, Mark Krain left his native New York City for graduate school in the Midwest.

“How can you live a life going to work every day where you don’t like what you are doing?” he was quoted as saying last year.

Krain followed his passion, earning two advanced degrees and spending 38 years teaching social work at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

Mark Allen Krain died Wednesday at the age of 76.

Benjamin Krain said his father’s death was unexpected. Mark Krain had suffered from diabetes but was in generally good health.

“He went to sleep like normal and just never woke up,” Ben Krain said. “He was sharp until the end.”

Doris Krain said her husband was an academic and an introvert. But he was willing to step out of his area of expertise, as he did when they began taking ballroom dancing lessons 25 years ago.

“He was a great, great swing dancer,” she said. “He loved swing music.”

Mark Krain was born July 15, 1940, in Brooklyn, N.Y. He was raised in Brooklyn and Far Rockaway, N.Y.

He married Doris Reich of Queens, N.Y., on May 12, 1963. They had two sons, Ben and Lewis, and five grandchildren, Parker, Riley, Mira, Milo, and Brady.

Mark Krain earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Brooklyn College before going to work for the Social Security Administration.

Afterwards, he earned a master’s degree in sociology from the University of Michigan and a doctorate in sociology with a fellowship in gerontology from the University of Minnesota.

In 1971, Krain was hired as an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Iowa. He left Iowa in 1977 to become a faculty member in the newly created master’s program in gerontology at UALR.

He remained at UALR until retiring as professor emeritus in 2015.

“He was really a loved and valued member of the faculty,” said E. Christopher Lloyd, interim director of the School of Social Work at UALR. “I was sad when he retired in 2015, because I really liked having him around.”

Lloyd said Krain’s areas of expertise included gerontology and policy. Krain taught a class on policy and worked to effect policy change.

“His students needed to understand the nuts and bolts of those policies,” Lloyd said. “It makes a vast difference in people’s lives.”

Krain was an advocate especially in terms of health issues, said Rosalie Otters, coordinator of the gerontology program at UALR.

Last year, the Dr. Mark Allen Krain Endowed Scholarship was established at UALR’s School of Social Work. Funding for the scholarship was provided by a $30,000 anonymous donation.

“One of the highlights of my position as dean was notifying Mark that we were naming a scholarship in his honor,” said Ann Bain, dean of UALR’s College of Education and Health Professions. “He was so touched to have been selected. He has positively impacted the lives of many students and colleagues through his long tenure at UA-Little Rock.”

Krain was active in the Jewish community and consulted with the social work interns on the Family Services Committee of the Jewish Federation of Arkansas.

He served on the boards of the Arkansas Gerontological Society and Presbyterian Village. He also served in the Army Reserve for six years.

Krain was a regular on UALR’s gerontology email Listserv, where he often posted New York Times articles about aging and staying fit.

He worked out at the Little Rock Athletic Club, Doris Krain said. Mark Krain had a personal trainer and took Pilates and yoga classes.

“He was one of the few people who could give you both sides of something he thought was important,” Doris Krain said. “He could tell you why it was good, but he could also tell you why there were problems.”

“He loved teaching, and he loved his family. That was everything to him.”