Marsh, Willard

Willard Marsh (1922-1970) was born in Oakland, California, son of Louis and Goldie (Greene) Marsh. During World War II, while serving U.S. Army Air Forces (1942-45) in the South Pacific (advanced to staff sergeant), he began to write and subsequently acquired degrees at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop (B.A., 1959, M.A., 1960). Marsh married George Rae Williams (a former actress at Pasadena Playhouse), September 4, 1948. He taught at Winthrop College, Rock Hill, SC, assistant professor of English, 1959-61; University of California, Los Angeles, assistant professor of English, 1961-64; North Texas State University, Denton, assistant professor of English, 1968-70. He was a free-lance writer in Mexico before, between, and after these years, placing stories in more than seventy periodicals, including Antioch Review, Furioso, Prairie Schooner, Northwest Review, Yale Review, Esquire, Playboy, Transatlantic Review, and Saturday Evening Post. Stories were selected for such anthologies as the Foley and O'Henry collections.