Marshall works from a workshop in the peace of his own Bonny Doon home, and his mind is still busy imagining the next big thing. Lucjan Szewczyk/Press-Banner
Because the guide improves precision and relieves much of the smiths’ daily heavy lifting and bending over presses, the Manufacturing Jewelers and Suppliers of America presented a national award to Marshall in New York.
While he was there, he displayed his innovations at the Jarvis Center, selling every display machine he had built.
After Marshall was 17 years old, a fresh high school graduate, he worked in the oil fields of his native Kansas. He planned to attend college on a tennis scholarship, but an industrial accident followed by improper medical treatment resulted in the loss of a leg.
After rehabilitation, he started college but got bored and instead became a self-educated engineer,
Twenty-two years ago, at age 50, Marshall had another huge setback while working in Sand City, where he was in charge of his employer’s engineering department. The company was asked to test a glue. Heating it created isocyanate, which is highly toxic.
"I lost my memory," he recalled. "I could not add 2 and 2. My brain power function was taken away. Before the accident, I could visualize the entire design of a machine and all I had to do was sketch it out. After this, it took me two years to even get back to working, and now I have to plan each section at a time."
A small financial settlement enabled Marshall to start his own company in Bonny Doon. He eventually built a world-renowned reputation, then sold the business to a friend about 1½ years ago, intending to retire.
Retirement lasted six months. He now invents in his small home workshop. He also lectures and exhibits at trade shows and hosts workshops all over the U.S., England, Canada and Australia.
Marshall also makes wine. He and members of eight other families purchase and pick grapes in the Central Valley, then they process the grapes in oak barrels. They have an old-fashioned get-together when it is time to crush the grapes.
"It is great fun and I enjoy giving friends an excellent bottle of wine that I helped to make," he said. "We have a bottling party when the wine is ready and invite all our friends to help."
Marshall calls his success in the machinery field and his national award an example of "coming back from the dead."
His wife, Margie, is a former teacher of English as a second language at Cabrillo College.
"It was the highlight of my life to find her," Marshall said. "She is creative and we complement and complete each other like yin and yang."
"I realized I was able to succeed in spite of my handicaps," he reflected. "I believe in depending on oneself to change one’s situation."
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