About Our School
Marshall Elementary is a Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 5 school serving approximately 600 students. We are proud of our school and its learning environment. Students and staff are enthusiastic and motivated. Joined by parent volunteers, we form a true partnership in educating our children.
 What's in a Name?
Marshall Elementary School was named to honor George C. Marshall when the school first opened back in 1961. George Catlett Marshall was born December 31, 1880 in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. Marshall graduated from the Virginia Military Institute (VMI), where he was initiated into the Kappa Alpha Order in 1901. Marshall was an American Military leader, Army Chief of Staff, Secretary of State and the third Secretary of Defense. Once noted as the “organizer of victory” by Winston Churchill for his leadership of the Allied victory in World War II, Marshall served as the United States Army Chief of Staff during the war and as the chief military adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. As Secretary of State, his name was given to the Marshall Plan, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953.
Marshall was commissioned to Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army after graduation from VMI (February 1902). From 1906 to 1910 Marshall was stationed at Fort Leavenworth, KS where he was both a student and an instructor. Prior to World War I, he held various positions in the U.S. and in the Philippines. His positions included an infantry platoon leader and company commander during the Philippine-American War and several other guerrilla uprisings. During World War I he served as the director of both training and planning for the 1st Infantry Division, mid-1917. In mid-1918, he was promoted to American Expeditionary Forces Headquarters where he was a key planner of American operations. He was instrumental in the design and coordination of the Meuse-Argonne offensive, which contributed to the defeat of the German Army on the Western Front. Between World War I and II, he was a key planner and writer in the War Department, commanded the 15th Infantry Regiment for three years in China, and taught at the Army War College. Marshall was promoted to Brigadier General in October 1936, where he commanded the Vancouver Barracks in Vancouver, Washington from 1936-1938. President Franklin Roosevelt nominated Marshall to be Army Chief of Staff, Marshall was promoted to General and sworn in on September 1, 1939, the day German forces invaded Poland. He would hold this post until the end of World War II. As Chief of Staff, Marshall organized the largest military expansion in U.S. history, inheriting an outmoded, poorly equipped army of 189,000 men and coordinated the large-scale expansion and modernization of the U.S. Army. Though he had never actually led troops in combat, Marshall was a skilled organizer with a talent for inspiring other officers. Many of the American generals who were given top commands during the war were either picked or recommended by Marshall. In early 1947 Marshall was appointed as Secretary of State by President Harry Truman. He became the spokesman for the State Department's ambitious plans to rebuild Europe. The European Recovery Program, as it was formally known, became known as the Marshall Plan by President Truman. The Marshall Plan would help Europe quickly rebuild and modernize its economy along American lines. Marshall was named Time’s Man of the Year in 1947 and received the Nobel Peace Prize for his post-war work in 1953. He was the only U.S. Army General to have received this honor. Marshall resigned from the State Department because of his ill health on January 7, 1949, and in the same month became chairman of American Battle Monuments Commission. Later that year, Marshall was named president of the American National Red Cross (September 1949). During the early months of the Korean War, President Truman fired Secretary Louis A. Johnson and named Marshall as Secretary of Defense (September 1950). His main role was to restore confidence and rebuild the armed forces from the post-war state of demobilization. Marshall held this position for one year, retiring from public office for good in September 1951. Marshall died Friday, October 16, 1959 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. During a television interview, Harry Truman was asked who he thought was the American who made the greatest contribution of the last thirty years. Without hesitation, Truman picked Marshall stating "I don't think in this age in which I have lived, that there has been a man who has been a greater administrator; a man with a knowledge of military affairs equal to General Marshall."
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