HOWARD D. MARSHALL
1924 - 1972
Professor Howard D. Marshall was born on April 9, 1924 in
Poughkeepsie, New York. His parents were Smith and Florence
Drake Marshall. He grew up in Dutchess County and attended
local schools. He served in Japan and Okinawa in the United
States Infantry in 1946.
Professor Marshall attended Columbia College where he received
his B.A. in 1947, his M.A. in l949, and his Ph.D; in 1954 in
Economics. He came to Vassar College as an instructor in 1949
and served on the faculty continuously from that time until
his death in August, l972. During his time at Vassar he took
several research leaves and spent the year 1955-56 as a Visit-
ing Professor at Wesleyan University. He was promoted to
Assistant Professor at Vassar in 1954, to Associate Professor
in 1959 and became Professor in 1967. He was Chairman of the
Department of Economics a number of times. In fact, there
were many who thought of him as almost the permanent chairman
because of his leadership of the Department. He taught a wide-
ranging number of courses, and was competent in a surprising
number of fields including Labor, History of Economic Thought,
Money and Banking, Corporate and Government Finance and Economic
Theory. His strong sense of independence kept him from ever
succumbing to the "fashionable" in the academic marketplace.
His high standards for academic excellence were evident in his
writings and in his teaching. He provided great balance in
the Department through the years, not only through his breadth
of interests but also through the sense of continuity he gave
even while welcoming change.
He published a large number of articles in his fields and,
at the time of his death had completed five books: The Mobility
of College Faculties; The Great Economists; The History of
Economic Thought; Business and Government; and Collective
Bargaining. Several were jointly authored with his wife,
Natalie Junemann Marshall.
He was deeply committed to problems of the labor movement and
particularly brought his insight to bear on the problems of
education and educators. At the time of his death he was work-
ing on a study of the labor market for public school teachers.
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HOWARD D. MARSHALL - continued
He was active at Vassar on a number of committees. And he
was not only a staunch member of the AAUP who applied his
professional interest in the mobility of college professors
to the local situation, but a past president of the Vassar
Chapter.
Howard Marshall was one of those rare faculty members who
grew up in the Vassar area. Throughout his life he chose
to maintain close contact with the community from which he
came.
He was very active in the Dutchess County and Poughkeepsie
community, both in a professional capacity and with respect
to community organizations.
Howard Marshall's interest in and love of the community led
him to a variety of undertakings. He was Chairman of the
board of directors of the Hudson Valley Council on Economic
Education. He was a member of the New York State Council on
Economic Education. He gave a course in Business Economics
for several groups at IBM and in l955 and 1958 gave a series
of lectures for the Cornell Extension Service on "Current
Problems in Labor Relations." At the time of his death he
was engaged in producing an index of business conditions for
the local area.
Howard Marshall was actively involved with many of the busi-
ness and community leaders and always encouraged the Vassar
students to undertake studies of the community and to sup-
plement their classroom knowledge with field work in local
banking and investment institutions. In addition, he was the
director of the Vassar—Wellesley Summer Internship Program
in Washington, D. C. in 1961. This program provided an opportu-
nity for juniors to learn about various aspects of national
government by working in offices in the nation's capital.
He was a well known figure in economics, and was listed in
a number of directories including "Who's Who in America,"
"Contemporary Authors," "American Men of Science," and "Who's
Who in Education."
He was a member of a number of professional organizations
including the American Economic Association, Industrial Rela-
tions Research Association, and the National Tax Association.
HOWARD D. MARSHALL - continued
He was a devoted family man who gave much to his wife, Natalie,
and two children, Alison and Frederick Smith. His love of
congeniality and friends brought many members of the Vassar
community to his home, and we will long remember friendly
evenings at Howard's. He had many friends from the Poughkeepsie
comunity at large and those of us who joined him in gather-
ings at his home always knew that our circle of friends would
be widened as we met persons from all walks of life outside the
academic community. Thus Howard served in many ways to narrow
the gap between town and gown. Many of us now cherish friends
we first met at Howard's home. But more than that we remember
his warmth and friendliness, the good humour, kindly concern
and understanding he brought to any situation, and the breadth
of his knowledge as he talked with ease on many different
subjects.
Howard Marshall's home, located for many years across Raymond
Avenue from the Main Gate of Vassar College was an important
part of the Vassar community in another way. In it, he exempli-
fied the role of the devoted teacher-scholar in a residential
college. Senior seminars, picnics for majors, parties at gradu-
ation, and gatherings after visiting lectureships were often
held at the Marshalls. Here, as well as in the classroom, he
imparted to generations of Vassar economics majors his values,
an inner peace, a strong sense of justice, and a deep respect
for life.
Perhaps the most remarkable quality which Howard Marshall had
was his courage and tenacity which let none of us at Vassar
know how hard it must have been for him to carry on a more
than full load of teaching, advising, departmental chairman
and college activities cheerfully and with no sense of anything
but all the time in the world when we came to him as friends
and colleagues to discuss professional or other problems.
His illness never curtailed his interests, nor his zest for
life. There was a heroic quality to the way he refused to come
to terms with the restraining demands of his illness. For
Howard Marshall insisted upon living fully to the very end of
his life -- without compromise. It was a victory he won through
struggles that probably few of us know.
Respectfully submitted,
Shirley Johnson, Chairman
John Glasse
Henry Albers
Lawrence Herbst
May 16, 1973