Friends & Neighbors: Don Marsh

Being drafted into the Vietnam War in 1971 changed Don Marsh’s life forever — but not in the way you might think.

A LaFayette native, Marsh, now 57, had just completed two years of college, studying to be a computer technician, some at Massey College in Atlanta and the remainder at the University of Akron in Ohio, when he got the news from the U.S. Army. Marsh was stationed in Bindlach, Germany, and spent a year doing patrol along the Czechoslovakian border.

Then his captain came to him with an idea.

The large military base included an American school for the children of the servicemen and women stationed there. There was an opening for a teaching position that included serving as assistant coach of the boys basketball team and being in charge of field trips. Marsh hesitated, until the captain gave him two other options.

“I won’t divulge what those were, but I definitely did not want either one,” Marsh said. “So I ‘volunteered’ for the position.”

The job wasn’t easy for the 19-year-old.

“The children I was in charge of on the basketball team were unruly,” he said. “They were the sons of the captains and the lieutenants, and they were spoiled and undisciplined.”

Marsh developed a strict program to get them in shape, help them learn teamwork and be competition ready. At first many of the boys balked, but soon Marsh’s plan came together.

“We had a successful season,” he said. “They even played some of the soldiers and beat them.”

Marsh says the experience turned his world upside down.

“The mixture of unruliness, athletics, a lack of discipline and a large dose of discipline from the military set me on a path to education,” he said.

A torture chamber solidified his choice.

“I put together a field trip for a group of third- and fourth-graders to the Nürnberg, Germany, torture chambers and that one field trip changed me more than anything,” said Marsh. “They were underground, and it had a strange odor. When I came back I knew I wanted to stay in education.”

Marsh was honorably discharged in December 1972 and spent the next four or five years working in Atlanta. One day his phone rang with the news that he was needed in Akron.

“My relatives needed me,” said Marsh. “I knew then it was time to complete my degree, so I re-enrolled at Akron University and got my bachelor’s in K-8 education.”

After graduating in May 1980 he married his wife, Patricia, and the couple headed back home to LaFayette for a three-week vacation. It didn’t last long.

“My aunt called telling me I needed to go to Dalton and apply for a job,” Marsh said. “I told her I didn’t want to but she was really persistent.”

Both he and Patricia, who also held an education degree, applied and were hired by Dalton Public Schools.

“I had planned to go back to Akron and work in the school system there,” Marsh said. “During my last two years of college, I had worked as a houseparent to boys for the Akron Children’s Home.”

Instead he found himself at Brookwood and City Park working as an interrelated math teacher. While there, he obtained his master’s degree from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. After three years at the two elementary schools, Marsh moved to Dalton Junior High, teaching social studies and interrelated math.

In 1988, Marsh received a call from Juvenile Court Judge Lillian Miller asking if he would serve as an in-school probation officer. Remembering his work at the children’s home, he agreed. Marsh became not only an officer but a mentor and friend to the students, he said.

“We’d take them camping, hiking and to Falcons games,” he said. “The Falcons organization would provide tickets. We did something with the kids at least one weekend a month and sometimes two. They were lacking activities with family and that’s when they’d get into trouble.”

Marsh also served as the boys track coach at Dalton Junior High from 1988 to 2000. He says there were 12 on the team when he took over and the number grew to 68. The team won four region championships under his leadership.

“I worked with some of the best talent in the area such as Dennis Gilbert, Torrey Love and Caleb Harris,” said Marsh. “In seven events, there were records set that have never been broken.”

In 2000, Marsh quit as coach and probation officer to obtain his educational specialist degree from Lincoln Memorial University. His study opened his eyes to another area of education he hadn’t seen previously, diagnostics, which seeks to determine the strengths and weaknesses of each student.

“I gotta know where every student is individually because my teachers growing up never did that with me,” Marsh said. “Diagnostics is very important.”

He currently works as an interrelated math teacher at Dalton Middle School, where he said he feels privileged to have helped develop a diagnostic math program as a member of the Math Team.

“We are blessed to have a strong community and a strong group of teachers at Dalton Middle School,” Marsh said. “I’m very proud to be a part of it.”

He also feels blessed to be able to see the fruits of his labor. Many of his former students visit him on his farm in Tunnel Hill, where he raises quarter horses and beef cattle.

“Even the probation kids come and introduce their new families,” Marsh said. “I know what the underlying message is … ‘I made it.’ They’re telling me ‘thank you.’ Working four jobs took its toll, but the fruits of that labor far exceed the sweat equity that was put into it.”

Today he and Patricia have more free time, which is often spent riding their Harley Davidson Road King touring bike.

“We’re members of the Sweathogs, and they do a lot of good things,” Marsh said. “We also ride to check on elderly relatives and we like to go to Ellijay to the Apple Festival.”

The couple have four grown children: Ericka Harris, Horatio Marsh, Jamal Marsh and Casey Marsh.

Marsh is thankful for the change his stint in the Army brought in his life.

“It’s a blessing that the Lord thought enough of me to put me in this position to have an effect on the lives of children,” he said.

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