18 Facts About Mark Shields

Mark Stephen Shields was an American political columnist, advisor, and commentator.

Mark Shields worked in leadership positions for many Democratic candidates' electoral campaigns.

Mark Shields was a regular panelist on Inside Washington, a weekly public affairs show that was seen on both PBS and ABC until it ceased production in December 2013.

Mark Shields was moderator and panelist on CNN's Capital Gang for 17 years.

Mark Shields was born on May 25,1937, and raised in Weymouth, Massachusetts, in an Irish Catholic family, the son of Mary, a schoolteacher, and William Mark Shields, a paper salesman, who was involved in local politics.

Mark Shields graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1959 with a bachelor's degree in philosophy.

Mark Shields was a lance corporal before he was discharged in 1962.

Mark Shields was based in Washington DC from 1965, initially working as an aide to Wisconsin Senator William Proxmire.

Mark Shields later held leadership positions in the presidential campaigns of Edmund Muskie and Morris Udall, and was political director for Sargent Shriver when he ran for Vice President of the United States on the Democratic ticket in 1972.

In 1979, Mark Shields became an editorial writer for The Washington Post.

Mark Shields covered 12 presidential campaigns and attended 24 national party conventions.

Mark Shields taught US politics and the press at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy.

Mark Shields was a regular political commentator on the PBS NewsHour from 1988 to 2020.

Anchorwoman Judy Woodruff announced on the December 14,2020, edition of the NewsHour that Mark Shields would be leaving the show as a regular analyst after its December 18 edition.

Mark Shields was the author of On the Campaign Trail, about the 1984 presidential campaign.

Mark Shields married Anne Hudson, who is a lawyer and former civil service official at the United States Department of the Interior, in 1966.

Mark Shields was on the board of directors of SOME and he established the William and Mary Shields Scholarship Program in honor of his parents at the University of Notre Dame for students who are the first members of their families to go to college.

Mark Shields died from kidney failure at his home in Chevy Chase, Maryland, on June 18,2022, aged 85.