Marshall Allen Brooks August 3, 1942-January 9, 2019 Marshall was born in Buckhannon, West Virginia to Robert and Helen Brooks. He was the youngest of four boys and predeceased by William (Bill), Thomas (Tom), and Gerald (Jerry). He is survived by his wife Susan, son Stephen, daughter Maren, daughter-in-law Carey Jefferson, and granddaughter Madeline, as well as two sisters-in-law and ten nephews and nieces and their families.
Marshall earned a BS degree in biology/secondary education at the University of Missouri at Columbia and taught high school science before earning MA and PhD degrees in Science Education from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He pursued post-graduate studies in conservation biology and ecology. In 1978, Marshall became professor of education at North Carolina Wesleyan College.
Over the next 30 years, he served as Chair of Wesleyan’s Education Department, Chair of the Faculty, and Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of the College. In 1997, Marshall was named Jefferson-Pilot Distinguished Professor, and in 1998 he delivered the prestigious Jefferson-Pilot Lecture “The World Is Going to Pieces: Birds over Troubled Forests”. Upon his retirement from N.C. Wesleyan in 2008, he was named Professor Emeritus.
Even after retirement, he continued to offer online courses for several years. Marshall was an avid outdoorsman and lover of nature. He was a passionate birder, volunteering to conduct breeding bird surveys for the US Geological Service, migration monitoring for the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory, and coordinating multiple Audubon Christmas Bird Counts.
Marshall was a licensed bird bander and collected data for the Institute of Bird Populations’ Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship Program as well as volunteering for Earthwatch bird-banding projects in Virginia and Ecuador. For N.C. Partners in Flight, Marshall served as Chair of the Education and Outreach Committee and as webmaster from 1997 to 2009, receiving the Public Awareness award in 2000. He co-edited the Birding North Carolina guide in 2005.
In 2009, Marshall and Susan moved to Lake Lure and built a home on land that had been in her family for generations. Here, he continued to enjoy birding and took up Tai Chi, bee keeping and raising chickens. He always loved hiking and camping in the mountains and he always had a dog by his side.
Dr. Marshall Allen Brooks died at Tore’s Home in East Flat Rock, North Carolina on January 9, 2019, at the age of 76. The funeral will be held on Saturday, January 19, 2019 at 1:30 p.m. at the Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration in Bat Cave, NC. In lieu of flowers, please consider an act of service or volunteerism of your choice in Marshall’s memory or consider donating to one of the following: Memory Care (memorycare.org), Hickory Nut Gorge Outreach (hickorynutgorgeoutrach.org), or the Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration in Bat Cave, NC (ectransfiguration.org).
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