Marc Gaede enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corp in late 1965. He was stationed at Camp Pendelton as base photographer after graduating from the U.S. Army photographic school in Ft. Monmouth, N.J., and briefly served as photographer for HMM-364 (“Purple Foxes”) on the USS Iwo Jima (LPH-2) in 1966. He was honorably discharged from active duty as a Corporal E-4 January 2nd 1968. Gaede did not serve in Vietnam.
In 1970 Marc was a registered Grand Canyon professional river boatman, making six trips through the canyon for Hatch River Expeditions and American River Touring Association (ARTA).
Marc graduated from Northern Arizona University with a BS degree in Anthropology and his MFA degree in Photography from Art Center College of Design.
Marc Gaede was the staff photographer at the Museum of Northern Arizona from 1968 to 1975 with one year off while attending the University of Arizona in 1969, and then as curator of photography from 1976 to 1977.
In 1978-79 Marc Gaede worked as Photographer-in-Residence at the Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona. In this position he printed the entire Wynn Bullock archive and occasionally worked with photographer W. Eugene Smith on his print archive. When Smith unexpectedly passed away, Marc packed-up all his photographic equipment, which included over 10 cameras systems.
In 1982 Marc Gaede moved to the Los Angeles area where he was employed part-time as a script analyst for the Walt Disney Company, a position he would hold for the next 23 years. From 1984 through 1986, Marc worked as a production manager in Hollywood supervising 60 episodes of Winnie-the Pooh, and 320 shows of the TV’s Divorce Court, as well as the HBO pilot First and Ten, and the series The Investigators.
In addition to instructing photography, in 1988 Marc returned to roots and began teaching Physical Anthropology at the Art Center College of Design, Department of Humanities and Sciences, where he is an adjunct associate professor. He stopped instructing in photography in 1993 and began co-teaching Environmental Issues with Marnie Gaede, an academic class that continues today.
Marc first studied Physical Anthropology under Frederick S. Hulse by auditing classes at the University of Arizona in 1964. His paleoanthropology professor at Northern Arizona University was Mark Taylor. In 1996, Professor Christy Turner of Arizona State University, sponsored Gaede into the American Association of Physical Anthropologists.
Marc Gaede has a long association with the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society that began in 1989. He has been on the following Sea Shepherd high seas campaigns: Dolphins 1989, Driftnets 1990, Harp Seals 1993, Whales Forever 1994, Harp Seals 1994, Harp Seals 1998, Faroe Islands 2000.
Marc served as Sea Shepherd interim executive director 2001/2002, and has been on the Advisory Board since 2002. Marc was a co-founder of the Black Mesa Defense Fund in 1970, one of the first direct action environmental groups that was a precursor to Earth First! Historian Alston Chase records the direct-action campaign against the strip mining on Black Mesa, Arizona, organized by the Chinle Chapter of the Committee to Save Black Mesa and Marc in April 1971 as the first modern-day environmental confrontational protest.
Marc Gaede’s maternal grandfather is Irving Brant, the principal biographer of President James Madison, and an important early American conservationist. Brant began his environmental career in the late 1920s with the Emergency Conservation Committee, and later as the principal environmental advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Brant is credited by historian Carsten Lein as the primary founder of Olympic National Park, saving the Hoh and Bogachiel rain forests under President Truman, as well as submitting Stewart Udall to President-elect John F. Kennedy for Secretary of the Interior.