Virginia M Marsh

Virginia M. Marsh

February 15, 1920 ~ December 26, 2014

Virginia was born in East Lansing, Michigan. Her parents were Henry C. Moore and Cornelia F. Kephart. She graduated from Michigan State College in 1942 with a degree in Liberal Arts, and then served in the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corp during World War II. Following the war she taught various high school classes before pursuing the first of two more serious vocational interests, both on a part time basis. The first was music. Coming from a musical family she sang in numerous choral groups and later in life learned to play two recorders. But her primary instruments were keyboards, and she became accomplished on several. The second vocational interest lead to a professional career of 20 years, starting in 1952 with completion of her Master’s Degree in Library Science from the University of Michigan. Her library career was in Battle Creek, Michigan Public Schools. While there, she held offices in the educational association, the school employee’s credit union, and the Michigan Association of Exceptional Children. One year she was president of the Michigan Library Association, Music and libraries were not her only involvements.

As a committed Christian she was a lifelong, devoted member of the Episcopal Church. Through this church and her involvement in educational affairs, she met someone who would become more than a mere – lifelong friend – Dorothy Marsh.  It was Dorothy who introduced her to her brother, William Marsh, and in 1959 William and Virginia were married. Dorothy and William, brother and sister, were already head of a family unit having raised the two children of Williams’s deceased wife who died in 1941.  This friendship with Dorothy and marriage to her brother made a continuing family of three until retirement in 1972. In that year Colorado became their new residence and a retirement home was built in Ouray. There, Virginia was one of the first drivers of the Senior Handibus secured by the efforts of Dorothy. Virginia was also involved in several informal music groups, was a sponsor of the Ouray Music Festival, and for over 20 years was the organist for St. John’s Episcopal Church in Ouray.

She is survived by her sister Jeanette Ford and her children of Salida, CO; her sister Susan Tull of Nyack, NY; her stepson the Reverend Karl Marsh and his family; and the children of her stepdaughter Sonya Schnurr, Lisa, Scott, Stephan and Christopher Aurand.

The Burial Office, Requiem Eucharist of Interment of Ashes will be at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Ouray, CO, August 1, 2015 at 1:00 PM.

In Lieu of flowers, memorials may be sent to St. John’s Music Fund, P.O. Box 563, Ouray, CO 81427; or HopeWest Hospice, P. O. Box 1804, Montrose, Co. 81402. Arrangements are under the care of Crippin Funeral Home and Grand View Cemetery. (970) 249-2121