Robert Earley Marsh, was born, Feb.
28, 1907, in Bellingham (Whatcom County), Washington.
(His birth name was Robert Francis Marsh. At some point, perhaps as a young adult, he changed his middle name.)
(His birth name was Robert Francis Marsh. At some point, perhaps as a young adult, he changed his middle name.)
He graduated from Lincoln High
School in Portland, Oregon, on on June 15, 1926. He was a member of Grant’s
first graduating class.
On June 5, 1934, he graduated
with a doctor of dental medicine degree from North Pacific Dental College in
Portland, Oregon. North Pacific is now the School of Dentistry of the Oregon
Health & Science University in Portland.
Prior to starting dental school
he earned money to help pay dental school tuition by fighting forest fires for
the U.S. Forest Service in north central Idaho’s Selway National Forest.
Later, between dental school
terms, he fought fires in the Salmon National Forest in central Idaho’s
mountains. This photo is apparently of him as a firefighter.
Since his father, John Joseph
Marsh, was a Bellingham fire chief and firefighter, he had personal
satisfaction working in the forests.
After graduating from dental
college he had dental practices on the Oregon coast before going to work for
the Civilian Conservation Corps, serving as a dentist in CCC camps in southern
Oregon and north California. Later, he became a dentist for the U.S. Veterans
Administration.
Photo with beard during the
time he was with the U.S. Forest Service. Photo in uniform from 1938 with the
Civilian Conservation Corps.
