A Loss to the W&L Community: H. Marshall Jarrett
I am sorry to report that H. Marshall Jarrett, professor of history at Washington and Lee from 1963 to 2000 and a member of the Class of 1952, died today, Tuesday, Feb. 9, at Heritage Hall here in Lexington. He was 79.
Marshall’s warm and generous personality and his dedication to the craft of teaching made him a cherished member of this community. His former students, and I include myself among them, remember well his courses on European history and the French Revolution. He left his mark, and it was an impressive one.
A memorial service will be held for Marshall this Saturday, Feb. 13, at 2 p.m. at the Lexington Presbyterian Church. In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that individuals make a contribution to the charity of their choice.
As an undergraduate, Marshall belonged to Sigma Alpha Epsilon social fraternity, and was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Alpha Theta academic honor societies. He studied under William A. Jenks ’39, another longtime professor of history here. After graduation, Marshall spent two years in the army before returning to W&L as a Scholar of the University to study foreign languages before entering graduate school.
He received his M.A. and Ph.D. in history from Duke University. From 1962 to 1963, he served as an assistant professor of history at Westminster College, in Fulton, Mo., before returning to W&L.
He served as the head of the History Department from 1983 to 1988. Marshall taught courses in the Old Regime, the French Revolution and Napoleonic France, as well as European intellectual history and the first-year survey of European history.
Upon his retirement, he received the Dr. William W. Pusey III Award from the Executive Committee, which acknowledges the faculty or staff member who has made the greatest contribution to the University. In 2007, Martin E. Stein ’74 and Brooke Stein established a professorship because of their regard for Marshall, Professor Jenks and Professor Henry P. Porter Jr. ’54.
Kim and I send our condolences to Marshall’s family, including his wife, Charlene, and their sons, Charles and David ’81.
President Kenneth P. Ruscio
W&L Alumni Perspective 
Leave a comment