DR. CARLOS Marquez Sterling, who died at age 92 on Friday, gave his life to the cause of Cuban republican government and democracy. More than any single Cuban politician of his generation, Dr. Marquez Sterling was responsible for Cuba's splendid 1940 constitution. As president of the Constitutional Assembly that wrote it, he chaired one of the most radiant moments in Cuban political history, the island's grandest example of political pluralism, compromise, and moderation.

During months of sessions, Dr. Marquez mediated intricate and impassioned debates among Communists, Fulgencio Batista's followers, liberals, conservatives, old revolutionaries, members of the Autentico (Authentic) Party, and others. Every faction had ample opportunities to present and debate bills, amendments, clauses.

Later, as Cuba's minister of education, Dr. Marquez Sterling founded the University of Havana's first school of journalism. A lawyer and historian, he wrote dozens of books. His output as a journalist in exile and in Cuba was prodigious.

He went into exile in 1959. Until 1979, he was a professor at Columbia University and C.W. Post College. He also was a guest lecturer at Florida International University.

Dr. Marquez Sterling was a lifelong enemy of violent revolutionary change who advocated the "electoral overthrow" of the Batista dictatorship. In 1958 he lost a fraudulent election to the Batista candidate. He appealed to Cuba's Supreme Court, the presumed caretaker of the constitution that he had midwifed. The court ruled against him.

His 1940 creation, lamentably honored in the breach, was born in the moving Constitutional Assembly that will be Dr. Carlos Marquez Sterling's most enduring contribution to the country that he loved and served with such devotion.