Gordon L. Marshall

Gordon L. Marshall, 92, of New London, NH died Sunday, September 8, 2024 of pancreatic cancer. He was born on January 30, 1932 in Yonkers, NY to Margaret Sheets Marshall and J. Robert Marshall. 

Gordon was an avid sailor, and met his first wife, Carolyn Pratt Marshall, on a blind date while he and his brother were sailing their Star class boat in a regatta on Lake Sunapee. They continued to summer on Lake Sunapee for decades, welcoming children, grandchildren, and other family members to join them for boat rides, “dock work,” and summer meals.

After his graduation from Princeton University, he and Carol married in 1953. He completed his ROTC commitment with two years of active duty as a lieutenant in an artillery unit of the U.S. Army. He went on to obtain an MBA and DBA from the Harvard Business School, serving in their admissions office and then as a faculty member for several years. He served as Dean of Faculty at IMEDE in Lausanne, Switzerland from 1971-1973, where he developed an MBA program with a multinational faculty, expanding a business management program originally developed for Nestle executives. 

From 1973-1983, Gordon served as the president of Wheelock College in Boston. He was proud of helping reinvigorate an institution that had been struggling. After his retirement from Wheelock, he was deeply honored that generous alumni created the Gordon Marshall Faculty Endowment, funding two faculty positions each year.

The family had developed a love of skiing while living in Switzerland, and he and Carol built a home in New London, NH in 1975 so they could spent winter weekends and holidays on the slopes. They became full time residents in 1983. Gordon wasn’t quite ready to be retired, and worked with an entrepreneurial startup company, Enerchip, for two years. Then he became director of a small federal grant for the NH Association of School Principals for two years, before joining the faculty of Colby Sawyer College, where he served as chair of the department of business administration and taught undergraduates. His final post-retirement work was to serve as the executive director of the Lake Sunapee Protective Association, helping to grow it from a small lake association to one of the most respected lake associations in the world with a water quality research lab and an environmental education program.

Gordon is survived by his wife, Betty Herrick; his children, Lawrence Marshall (Rosemarie Cyr), Geoffrey Marshall (Laurie Radovsky), Lyn Marshall, and Fred Marshall (Alexa); his grandchildren Byron Marshall (Caitlin), Siloh Radovsky (Ethan Camp), Jonah Radovsky, Eric and Carl Betz, William, Alexander, Robert, and Harrison Marshall; and great grandsons Albert and Henry Marshall.

He was predeceased by his first wife, Carolyn Pratt Marshall, his brother Robert Marshall, and his grandson Andrew Marshall.

In a love story for the ages, after the loss of his wife Carol to dementia, Gordon knew he did not want to spend the rest of his years alone. He made the audacious suggestion to a former colleague, Betty Herrick, whose husband had died several years prior, that they consider becoming life partners. Although he wasn’t planning on romance, they quickly found themselves falling in love as they corresponded - Gordon in NH, Betty in FL - and were engaged to be married the first night they met again in person. They enjoyed six wonderful years together. Their seven children all embraced this new love and worked as a team to support them when health challenges arose for either parent.

Gordon will be remembered as a generous, intelligent, gentle, and kind man, committed to his family and the institutions he served. Some of his final words on his last day of life, as he looked at gathered family, were “I am so lucky.”

Family and friends are invited to gather for a celebration of his life at the Lake Sunapee Country Club in New London, NH on Saturday, September 14 at 2:00 pm. Memorial donations may be made to the Lake Sunapee Protective Association or the charity of your choice.