Willard `Bill' Marsh Traveled The World, Wrote Home About It

Willard W. "Bill" Marsh, a gifted publicist who for four decades represented Pan American World Airways in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, and who also wrote for The Seattle Times, always had a joke or story.

Dapper in a suit and ever-present smile, he made regular rounds to newspapers and other businesses while working as a publicist. His stories and keen interest in people earned him friends around the world.

A favorite tale concerned how, as a Navy lieutenant commanding Merchant Marine ships in World War II, he survived the sinking of two ships hit by German torpedoes.

"He was `The Unsinkable Bill Marsh,' that's for sure," said his son, Gerald Marsh of Zillah, Yakima County. "He was always positive."

About the only time Mr. Marsh was unhappy, recalls former Seattle Times Managing Editor Henry MacLeod, was when Pan Am tried to reward him by posting him to the Honolulu office.

"After a year, he asked to be sent back to Seattle because he couldn't stand all that sun," said MacLeod.

Mr. Marsh, a longtime Bellevue resident who recently moved to Issaquah, died Monday (May 11) of cancer. He was 84.

"Bill was a good friend of The Times," said Don Brazier, another retired editor who, like Mr. Marsh, contributed travel stories to The Times. "I was traveling to French Polynesia for a story, and the Pan Am flight from Sea-Tac (to a San Francisco connection) was delayed all day. Bill was at Sea-Tac to see me off. When I finally arrived in San Francisco, Bill was waiting. I don't know how he did that."

Born in Portland, Mr. Marsh earned a journalism degree at the University of Oregon, then worked as a reporter for The Oregonian and the Yakima Herald-Republic before joining The Times in the late 1930s.

In the early 1940s, Mr. Marsh took a service leave, but he sent back stories about his Navy adventures.

He worked as a Boeing publicist after the war, then joined Pan Am in 1949. Although he slowed his publicity work in 1981, he never really retired. He enjoyed traveling and sent freelance stories back to The Times.

No other immediate family members survive. His wife of 49 years, Geraldine Marsh, died in 1988.

A memorial gathering is scheduled for 2 p.m. May 22 at Providence Point Clubhouse, 4135 Providence Point Drive S.E., Issaquah.

Because one of Mr. Marsh's proudest lifetime achievements was becoming an Eagle Scout, he wanted donations in his name to go to the Boy Scouts of America, Troop 490, c/o David Tyler, 13651 S.E. 107th St., Renton, WA 98059.