Professor Marrow, a graduate of the Riverdale Country School and the University of Minnesota, earned M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in art history from the University of California at Berkeley, where he teaches the history of art. He is the author of several books on northern Renaissance art. His father was the president of the Marrow Manufacturing Company, which made artificial flowers in New York. The bridegroom is a grandson of the late Louis Chalif, who was the ballet master of the Metropolitan Opera and who founded the Chalif School of Dancing in New York. The bridegroom's two previous marriages ended in divorce.