Richard H. Marshall

Richard 'Dick' Marshall passed away on June 28th, 2023 at the age of 88. The cause of death was complications from heart failure. He was born in Somerville, MA on July 23rd, 1934 and grew up in a loving household in Somerville with his late parents, Ruth Hamilton Marshall and Ivan Marshall, and his younger brother Barry, who pre-deceased him. He graduated from Somerville High and Northeastern University with a degree in Finance. To pay for his education at Northeastern, Dick applied and was awarded a ROTC scholarship. After graduating Northeastern and finishing OCS, Dick was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Army's Finance Corp.

During his early Army career, Dick was based at Fort Gordon, GA where he started his lifelong love of golf. While there, Dick was assigned as part of an honor guard to help the Secret Service in their duty to protect President Eisenhower when he played at Augusta National Golf Course. Dick was also able to be a marshal at the Masters Golf Tournament. While doing TDY at the National Rifle and Pistol Championships at Camp Perry, OH in the Summer of 1960, he met his lifelong soulmate and partner, Phyllis Vanscoy. They fell for each other and were married on February 11, 1961. They gave birth to two sons, Rick and Phillip, who are their survivors.

Lt. Col. Marshall was stationed at Ft. Gordon, GA, Ft. Riley, KS, Ft. Benjamin Harrison, IN, Heidelburg, Germany, Ft. Bragg, NC, Ft. Meade, MD, Ft. Leavenworth, KS, Syracuse, NY and finally at the Pentagon. As a Captain, Dick led a finance company in Vietnam. His company, besides their everyday finance duties, was also responsible for providing camp security. They showed their mettle during the Tet Offensive in 1968 when attacked by the Viet Cong in a surprise nationwide attack on al lmilitary posts. He also served as the paymaster for the Republic of Korea Capital Division serving in Vietnam that year. While at the Pentagon, then Major Marshall started to work every Saturday and some Sundays in early 1975 for months. He could not mention at the time what he was doing, but he stopped working the weekends shortly after the news broke that Operation Babylift, the repatriation of our war orphans from Vietnam was started. It turned out he was part of an all-services finance group tasked to find the money to bring those kids home.

Lt. Col. Marshall retired after serving 20 years in the Army. He then started his second career as the Internal Auditor for Tower Federal Credit Union. It turned out that Tower was the credit union for the NSA at Ft. Meade, MD. So the Top Secret clearance he had been awarded in the Army turned out to be useful after all. While at Tower, Dick ran the company golf tournament every year where much fun was had by all who attended. After working 20 years at Tower, Dick retired once again but was not so ready to leave the work force. This time he indulged in his one great passion that wasn't his country or family, his love of golf.