George Marshall (February 11, 1904 – May 15, 2000) was an American economist, political activist, and conservationist. He was an early leader of The Wilderness Society, a

HUAC The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...

abolitionist, and later a leader of the

Sierra Club The Sierra Club is an environmental organization with chapters in all 50 United States, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by Scottish-American preservationist John Muir, who be ...

.Obituaries: George Marshall
. ''Columbia College Today''. May 2001. Retrieved November 26, 2009.

Early life and education

George Marshall was the son of

Louis Marshall Louis Marshall (December 14, 1856 – September 11, 1929) was an American corporate, constitutional and civil rights lawyer as well as a mediator and Jewish community leader who worked to secure religious, political, and cultural freedom for a ...

, noted constitutional lawyer, supporter of the

Jewish Agency for Palestine The Jewish Agency for Israel ( he, הסוכנות היהודית לארץ ישראל, translit=HaSochnut HaYehudit L'Eretz Yisra'el) formerly known as The Jewish Agency for Palestine, is the largest Jews, Jewish non-profit organization in the w ...

, and co-founder of the

American Jewish Committee The American Jewish Committee (AJC) is a Jewish advocacy group established on November 11, 1906. It is one of the oldest Jewish advocacy organizations and, according to ''The New York Times'', is "widely regarded as the dean of American Jewish org ...

, and Florence Lowenstein. George grew up in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

with his sister Ruth and brothers James and Robert AKA

Bob Bob, BOB, or B.O.B. may refer to: Places * Mount Bob, New York, United States *Bob Island, Palmer Archipelago, Antarctica People, fictional characters, and named animals *Bob (given name), a list of people and fictional characters *Bob (surname ...

. All four children attended Felix Adler's

Ethical Culture School Ethical Culture Fieldston School (ECFS), also referred to as Fieldston, is a private independent school in New York City. The school is a member of the Ivy Preparatory School League. The school serves approximately 1,700 students with 480 facul ...

. Marshall continued his education at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, where he earned bachelor's (1926) and Master's (1927) degrees. He later earned a PhD in economics from the

Brookings Institution The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in ec ...

in 1930. His doctoral dissertation was entitled "The Machinists' Union: A Study in Institutional Development".

Career

From 1934-37, Marshall worked as an economist for the consumer division of the

National Recovery Administration The National Recovery Administration (NRA) was a prime agency established by U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) in 1933. The goal of the administration was to eliminate "cut throat competition" by bringing industry, labor, and governmen ...

under

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

New Deal The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Cons ...

Political activist

Marshall served as chairman of the

National Federation for Constitutional Liberties The National Federation for Constitutional Liberties (NFCL) (1940–c. 1946) was a civil rights advocacy group made up from a broad range of people (including many trade unionists, religious organizations, African-American civil rights advocates a ...

and the

Civil Rights Congress The Civil Rights Congress (CRC) was a United States civil rights organization, formed in 1946 at a national conference for radicals and disbanded in 1956. It succeeded the International Labor Defense, the National Federation for Constitutional Li ...

, a leftist organization that provided funding and leadership in the early United States

civil rights movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...

. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, he worked with

Paul Robeson Paul Leroy Robeson ( ; April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an American bass-baritone concert artist, stage and film actor, professional football player, and activist who became famous both for his cultural accomplishments and for his p ...

Dashiell Hammett Samuel Dashiell Hammett (; May 27, 1894 – January 10, 1961) was an American writer of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. He was also a screenwriter and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade ('' ...

, and

William L. Patterson William Lorenzo Patterson (August 27, 1891 – March 5, 1980) was an African-American leader in the Communist Party USA and head of the International Labor Defense, a group that offered legal representation to communists, trade unionists, and ...

on litigation protecting the rights of African-Americans and American communists. Marshall was called before the

House Committee on Un-American Activities The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...

, where he was cited for

Contempt of Congress Contempt of Congress is the act of obstructing the work of the United States Congress or one of its committees. Historically, the bribery of a U.S. senator or U.S. representative was considered contempt of Congress. In modern times, contempt of Co ...

for refusing to turn over records from the National Federation. Convicted, he served three months in a federal prison in 1950.''New York Times'', June 18, 2000.

Conservationist

Marshall had a lifelong dedication to

conservationism The conservation movement, also known as nature conservation, is a political, environmental, and social movement that seeks to manage and protect natural resources, including animal, fungus, and plant species as well as their habitat for the f ...

. He spent his childhood summers at Knollwood, his father's

Great Camp __NOTOC__ The Great Camps of the Adirondack Mountains refers to the grandiose family compounds of cabins that were built in the latter half of the nineteenth century on lakes in the Adirondacks such as Spitfire Lake and Rainbow Lake. The ca ...

on the shores of

Lower Saranac Lake Lower Saranac Lake is one of three connected lakes, part of the Saranac River, near the village of Saranac Lake in the Adirondacks in northern New York. With Middle Saranac Lake and Upper Saranac Lake, a paddle with only one portage is possible. ...

; with his brother Bob Marshall he climbed all 46 Adirondack High Peaks (mountains taller than 4,000 feet), an accomplishment that made him a founding " 46er". In 1939, after his brother's death at age 38, Marshall became a trustee of the Robert Marshall Wilderness Fund, now known as the

Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation Bob, BOB, or B.O.B. may refer to: Places *Mount Bob, New York, United States *Bob Island, Palmer Archipelago, Antarctica People, fictional characters, and named animals *Bob (given name), a list of people and fictional characters *Bob (surname) ...

, which supported conservation activities especially of The Wilderness Society, founded by his brother. George Marshall made major contributions to The Wilderness Society and then the

for more than 50 years. Marshall served on the board of directors of the Sierra Club from 1959–68, and later as "director, president, and vice chairman".

Personal life and death

Marshall married Elizabeth Dublin; they had two children, Roger Marshall and Nancy Marshall Schultz. Marshall moved to London until late in his life. He returned to New York in 1993, following the death of his wife. George Marshall died at age 96 on May 21, 2000, in Nyack, NY.

Works

Marshall edited The Wilderness Society's magazine, ''The Living Wilderness'' from 1957–61. Another of George Marshall's contributions was to edit his brother Bob's notebooks on the Alaskan wilderness, published as ''Alaska Wilderness: Exploring the Central Brooks Range'', now in its third edition. * ''Alaska Wilderness: Exploring the Central Brooks Range'' by Robert Marshall, edited by George Marshall (1956)

References

External links

New York Public Library
George Marshall Papers 1933-1955 {{DEFAULTSORT:Marshall, George 1904 births 2000 deaths American conservationists Sierra Club presidents American socialists Columbia College (New York) alumni Ethical Culture Fieldston School alumni National Recovery Administration People from Manhattan American magazine editors American people of German-Jewish descent American expatriates in the United Kingdom Civil Rights Congress Victims of McCarthyism Activists from New York (state) Sierra Club awardees