Grover E. Marshall ’51  died on July 30, 2023, in Dover, New Hampshire.

(The following was provided by the Cremation Society of New Hampshire – Hampton on August 9, 2023)

Grover Edwin Marshall ’51

Grover Edwin Marshall of Durham, NH, died July 30, 2023, at Wentworth-Douglass Hospital following a brief illness. He was 93.

Grover lived a life of service and devotion to his family, his career, and the people and causes he cherished. He was born in Portland, Maine, on March 28, 1930, to Carroll and Marguerite (Hoffman) Marshall and was educated in South Portland schools. He attended Bowdoin College, earning his bachelor’s degree in 1951, and pursued graduate studies at Princeton University, completing his PhD there in 1971.

Grover was a professor of French and Italian for thirty-five years at the University of New Hampshire, beginning in 1965 and retiring in 2000. He was department chair for several years, sat on numerous committees, and served as an academic advisor frequently over the years. Before embarking on his career at UNH, he taught at Princeton while pursuing his doctorate and for seven years at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, beginning in the late 1950s. It was in Williamstown that he met his wife of fifty-seven years, Linda (Curtis) Marshall. They were married July 2, 1966, and, following the birth of their daughter in 1971, settled in Portsmouth, NH, where they raised their family and lived until early 2020. Grover delighted in the concerts, plays, parks, restaurants, and historical sites that Portsmouth offered.

A talented musician, Grover served as the organist for Christ Episcopal Church in Portsmouth for twenty-five years and as a supply organist throughout the seacoast area for many years after that. He also sat on the board of the Young Organists Collaborative for many years. Grover’s love for the Anglican liturgy extended to involvement in the 1982 revision of the Anglican hymnal; he also served on the 1980 committee that translated the Episcopal Church’s Book of Common Prayer into French.

Grover enjoyed traveling. His adventures included several trips to Europe, church mission trips to Haiti, a stint teaching at a small college in the California desert while on sabbatical from UNH, an Alaskan cruise, travel throughout Atlantic Canada, and frequent visits to Acadia National Park, where he and Linda loved exploring beaches and hiking trails.

In early 2020, Grover and Linda moved to Riverwoods Durham, where Grover forged many new friendships, joined a Bible study group and a French conversation group, and enjoyed concerts, movies, and an informal “hallway happy hour” on Fridays with his neighbors.

Grover was predeceased by his parents, his brother, Richard Marshall, and his brother-in-law, James Curtis. He is survived by his wife, Linda; his daughter Sarah Brockway and her husband Jeff, of Milford, NH; grandsons Ben Brockway, of Durham, NH and Nick Brockway, of Milford, NH; sisters-in-law Gail Marshall of York, Maine, and Roberta Curtis of Westbrook, Maine, as well as six nieces and eleven great-nieces and nephews.

Grover will be remembered for his gentle soul, his profound intelligence, his lifelong intellectual curiosity, and his deep love for his family.