John Otho Marsh, Jr.
JOHN OTHO MARSH, JR., was born in Winchester, Virginia, on 7 August 1926; attended the public schools at Harrisonburg, Virginia; entered the U.S. Army in 1944, was commissioned through the Officer Candidate Course at the Infantry School, 1945, and served with the occupation forces in Germany, 1945–1947; was a member of the United States Army Reserve, 1947–1951; married Glenn Ann Patterson, 1950; graduated from Washington and Lee University, 1951; was admitted to the Virginia bar, 1952, and entered the practice of law in Strasburg, Virginia; was town judge of Strasburg and town attorney of New Market, Virginia, 1954–1962; served four terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from Virginia’s Seventh District, 1963–1971; resumed the practice of law in Washington, D.C.; entered service in the Army National Guard in Virginia in 1951, graduating from the Army’s Airborne Infantry School with a senior parachutist rating in 1964 and retiring from Guard service as a lieutenant colonel in 1976; was a member of the American Revolution Bicentennial Commission, 1966–1970; was Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs, 1973–1974; was a counselor to President Gerald R. Ford, 1974–1977; resumed the practice of law with the firm of Mays, Valentine, Davenport, and Moore; is a member of the Board of Visitors of the Virginia Military Institute; served as Secretary of the Army, 30 January 1981–14 August 1989, holding the office longer than any previous Secretary; during his tenure the Army observed the Bicentennial of the founding of the country, implemented the provisions of the Goldwater-Nichols Act making the services more oriented to joint operations, and reorganized the Army Staff to eliminate duplication of functions; is chairman, Reserve Forces Policy Board.
The Artist
Sylvia Rogers Barnes has been a professional artist for eighteen years. She has received numerous awards from the Society of Western Artists, has been a staff painter with Faces West Art Gallery and Studio, and is one of California’s important portrait painters. For four years she taught art at the Mt. Diablo School District, and since 1980 she has been a free-lance artist in the Monterey-Carmel area.
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JOHN OTHO MARSH, JR.
Reagan-Bush Administrations
By Sylvia Rogers Barnes
Oil on canvas, 42" x 35", 1990
page created 12 March 2001