Mark Volman Tribute
And Bio

Mark Randall Volman (April 19, 1947 – September 5, 2025) was an American vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter, best known as a founding member of the 1960s rock band The Turtles, and, along with his bandmate and friend Howard Kaylan, a member of the 1970s rock duo Flo & Eddie, where he used the pseudonym Flo (short for The Phlorescent Leech).
Volman also became a stand-out figure upon joining Frank Zappa's band, The Mothers of Invention.

Volman was born in Los Angeles, California, on April 19, 1947, to a Jewish father and a Catholic mother. He grew up in Westchester, a suburb of Los Angeles, where he performed in the proto-Turtles band The Crossfires and graduated from Westchester High School in 1965.
In 1992, at age 45, Volman started his bachelor's degree at Loyola Marymount University. He was an active undergraduate member of the choir and a Founding Father of the California Chi chapter of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity. Volman graduated with a B.A. degree in 1997, magna cum laude, and was the class valedictorian speaker. During the speech, he led the graduates in a chorus of "Happy Together". CBS Evening News covered Volman's graduation and interviewed his parents, who were perplexed at their son's academic accomplishments.

 

Volman earned a Master's degree in Fine Arts with an emphasis in screenwriting in 1999, also from Loyola. Since that time, he has taught Music Business & Industry courses in the Communications and Fine Arts department at Loyola. He had also taught courses in the Commercial Music Program at Los Angeles Valley College. He later became an associate professor and coordinator of the Entertainment Industry Studies Program at Belmont University, in the Mike Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business and conducted seminars about the music industry for various academic institutions from junior high school to university level. In addition, he offered consulting on the music business and entertainment through the website Ask Professor Flo.