Sam W. Marshall was a believer in education. Receiving his BS degree in Electrical Engineering from Louisiana Polytechnical Institute in 1956, he began working for Alcoa Aluminum Company in Rockdale, Texas. Serving at various Alcoa operations sites in Texas, Indiana and Washington, he assisted those with educational needs by tutoring engineering students and co-op students, working with adult learners completing their GED, and was instrumental in helping to establish the Washington State University branch campus in Vancouver, Washington. This branch of WSU focused on a master’s degree in Engineering Management and to demonstrate his commitment to higher education, he accepted the encouragement and challenge by the committee to enroll in the masters program himself. At the age of 62, he received his masters degree in Engineering Management.

At the age of 73 following a brief illness, he died of pancreatic cancer. He is survived by his wife, Eloise G. Marshall, who resides at Eden Home in New Braunfels, Texas, his son, S. Gregory Marshall, Chair and Associate Professor at Texas State, and his daughter, Melissa M. Smith, a secondary art teacher in Hartford, Connecticut.