Robert Marek was born on January 20, 1915, in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, the only son of Michael and Emma Marek. Born Robert Karl Marek, he invariably used the middle initial "C."

Robert Marek attended the University of Wisconsin (Madison) before transferring to Kansas State College at Emporia, where he received his Bachelor of Science degree in Music Education in 1940. He received a Master of Music degree from Eastman School of Music, Rochester, NY, in 1949, specializing in Music Theory with a minor in Composition. His Master's Thesis concerned high school music theory programs. He was awarded a Ph.D. in Music Theory with a minor in Musicology by Eastman School of Music in January, 1958. His doctoral thesis concerned harmonic sequences in the music of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Gluck and Cherubini.

His education was interrupted by World War II. He was stationed in England, participated in the D-Day invasion of Europe, and served in Belgium, rising to the rank of Sergeant. He was fond of telling that he became part of a US Army unit comprised largely of "illiterate Cajuns," and he became company clerk, by default.

Dr. Marek taught strings in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin, public schools, and both strings and orchestra in the Planeview Public Schools, Wichita, Kansas. He then accepted a job at Western State College, Gunnison, Colorado, teaching Strings, Orchestra, Music Education and Orchestration from 1949 to 1957. Concurrently, he taught summer music theory classes to High School students at the National Music Camp in Interlochen, Michigan, for two years.

Robert Marek joined the faculty of the University of South Dakota in 1957, teaching Music Theory, Counterpoint, Composition and Style Analysis. He also served the University in 1968 and 69 as Acting Dean of Fine Arts, and as Director of Admissions, from 1969 through 1973. He was a member of multiple departmental, college and university level committees at USD, including University Planning Committee, Graduate Council, Student Affairs, Placement Service Review, College of Fine Arts Development, President of the University Senate, chair of the Faculty Council, and member of the committee that framed the constitution establishing the University Senate. He also served as President of the University of South Dakota chapter of the Council on Higher Education. He served as a guest lecturer in USD classes in aesthetics and general humanities and arts. He appeared as a speaker on music subjects at a wide range of conventions and meetings of music organizations.

In the 1960s, he produced and hosted a series of eighteen live music broadcasts on public television station KUSD-TV. He saw this series as an important advancement in the cultural mission of the early "educational" television service in South Dakota.

In his early years at USD, Dr. Marek also collaborated with Dr. Wayne Knutson, providing incidental music for a series of musical dramas, including Dream Valley, which premiered in 1960. Portions of Dream Valley were broadcast on the Voice of America, and Sioux City television station KVTV. The Mirrored Maze was a "musical fantasy," on the subject "What is a University?" produced for the 75th anniversary of the University of South Dakota, and again for the 100th anniversary. With text by Wayne Knutson, he also wrote three one-act operas, Prosopa, Arabesque and the unperformed Phoenix.

Robert Marek's Cantata for a Dedication, with a text by USD Professor John Milton, was performed in 1974 for the opening of USD's Warren Lee Center for the Fine Arts. The third movement of the Cantata was performed in 1976 at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, in Washington, DC.

Marek played the viola, performing, for many years, in the University Orchestra, Sioux City Symphony, Sioux Falls Symphony, and other groups. He was also active in the musical community in the Black Hills, where he and his wife spent summers for many years at a vacation home in Silver City, S.D. He served on the board of the Black Hills Playhouse, and attended or participated in many musical events. He conducted the summer concert series of the Black Hills Chamber Music Society in 1975 and 1976, with three concerts each summer at the Dahl Fine Arts Center, in Rapid City, S.D.

In 1976 he arranged three pieces by South Dakota pioneer composer Felix Vinatieri, which were then performed by a wind ensemble. Dr. Marek conducted significant research into the life and works of Vinatieri, who had served as bandmaster for George Custer, during Custer's encampment near Yankton, S.D.

The South Dakota Board of Regents named Robert Marek an Emeritus Professor in 1982, and then-President of USD, Charles Lien, recognized him for 25 years of Service to the University. In 1983, the South Dakota Music Educator's Association presented him the Distinguished Service Award for 39 years of service to young people and devotion to Music Education.

Following his formal retirement, Dr. Marek remained active. Along with his wife, Leona, he taught at Morningside College, Sioux City, Iowa, for two years. In 1985 he wrote two articles about South Dakota composers, based on a series of interviews and surveys, leading to formation of the Association of South Dakota Composers.

Robert Marek was, first and foremost, a composer of "serious music." At the time of his formal retirement in 1982, his "Catalogue" of composed works included 21 chamber music selections, 7 solo instrumental works, 14 orchestral pieces, 8 band and wind ensemble works, 26 arrangements and transcriptions, 37 vocal and choral pieces, 8 theatre works, and 5 organ preludes. He continued composing throughout his retirement. His final work was an uncompleted string quartet.

Robert Marek married the former Leona Pratt on April 20, 1946, in her home town of Black River Falls, Wisconsin. Leona, who died in 1997, was an accomplished cellist whose legacy remains in hundreds of students she taught over almost fifty years. Robert and Leona Marek are buried in Vermillion, S.D.'s Bluff View Cemetery, within a mile of their home of over thirty years. They are survived by their only child, Michael, and his family, also of Vermillion, S.D.