After 39 years as an educator, including 30 as Portal Middle High School’s Agriculture teacher, Dr. Thomas Marshall is leaving quite a legacy following his recent retirement. With support and guidance from the school administration, Marshall was instrumental in obtaining a new agriculture barn in 2019, a greenhouse several years ago and a relatively new shop for the program.

However, it’s the lives he poured into and helped build up that Marshall treasures the most about his four decades as an educator.  

“I hope that my greatest accomplishment is that the thousands of students I taught knew I cared about each one of them,” Marshall said. “That I was able to serve as an example for them on how to live and make right decisions that lead to a truly successful life.

“I hope also that I accomplished helping as many students as I could see that everyone can be successful in something. The agriculture and FFA program offers such a variety of diverse opportunities that each student can find something in which to be successful.

“Whether it was growing a crop of plants in the greenhouse, building something in the shop, participating in a public speaking contest for the first time, raising an animal or wining an area or state contest, I hope I was, at least in part, responsible for all of my students to believe in themselves, build self-confidence and experience success.”

Marshall’s passion for the profession began when he was just a youngster. He enjoyed the outdoors at an early age and by the time he was in middle school, he was mowing and trimming yards. 

“I did lawn care all the way through middle school and early high school to earn money,” Marshall said. “Before I could drive, I would pull my lawn mower behind my bicycle and mow yards in the neighborhood.”

That passion and his love of the outdoors resulted in Marshall’s selection of the college of agriculture at the University of Florida. “My involvement in a large, active campus ministry at UF led me to consider the ministry after I finished college, so I studied for a time in a campus minister’s training program.”

When Marshall decided not to pursue the ministry in 1981, he took a position as a high school agricultural teacher at Vanguard High School in Ocala, Florida, then transferred to North Marion High School, a large rural high school north of Ocala and taught there for seven years. 

“To me, teaching agriculture combined my love of the outdoors with my desire to minister to young people,” Marshall said. 

After growing the agriculture and FFA program at North Marion and working with the student teaching program in the agricultural education department at Florida, Marshall decided to apply to PhD programs to become a teacher educator and was accepted at Texas A&M. 

Unfortunately, Marshall completed the PhD program at the time of the downward economy of the late 80s and university positions were difficult to secure.

“I decided to go back to the high school and applied for positions in Florida and Georgia and came to Portal in August of 1990.”

A grateful community

Thousands of students later, the Portal community is grateful Marshall made that choice. 

“Dr. Thomas Marshall was one of the best teachers I ever had,” said JD White, owner of A-1 Grassroots Lawn Maintenance & Landscaping. “He was always fair to every student. He could make anybody understand anything and remember it. ‘Doc’ could put it in terms that anybody could understand it.”

White said part of the reason he chose his career path stemmed from classes he had each year from the ninth grade through the 12th grade. 

“A lot of what Dr. Marshall taught me in school, I use every day in my business,” White said. “Horticulture, plant (identification). Ag mechanics was my most influential class. I can work on 90 percent of everything that comes in my shop – all that knowledge came from him.”

Romaine Cartee, a 1998 Portal graduate and current livestock producer and farmer in Portal said he had classes under Marshall and participated in after-school, extra-curricular FFA activities throughout his high school career that included forestry judging, livestock judging, meat judging and more. 

“Dr. Marshall set his goals high and then encouraged the students to do the same” Cartee said. “He influenced as many people in the community of Portal as Viola Brack.” 

Cartee said Brack is a former Portal educator of 43 years whom he said touched the lives of practically everyone in the community in some way or another.

Cartee said his career path was hugely influenced by the beloved teacher. 

“I took what Dr. Marshall taught about animal herd health and now I do cattle work for people in the community, as well as other surrounding counties.”

Cartee, who worked with Marshall on the recent PMHS barn project, said Marshall was determined to see the completion of a new ag barn before he retired. “His goal was to continue teaching until the new barn was built. He hung in there until that happened.”

Marshall often had FFA teams that excelled in competitions. “By far, working after school to prepare students for team competitions and traveling with them was the favorite part of my job,” Marshall said. “Not every team placed, but we always worked hard to do the best we could do and we always had fun doing it.

Though PMHS agriculture teams were usually in the top five in the state each year, two memorable competitions for Marshall and his students include winning the FFA State Meats Evaluation in 2013 and the State Nursery Landscape contest in 2018. 

“Those two stand out as highlights of my accomplishments as a teacher,” he said. “Competing at the national level was an amazing experience for my students and myself as well. I appreciate very much the hard work put in by the students on those teams and the support of their families and the school administration as we competed and traveled.”

Marshall humbly takes no credit for the 2018 winning team members’ salutatorian and valedictorian status and said, “Those four girls were already ranked first or second in their class when they came together on the team. They cooperatively worked hard and devoted themselves to winning the state FFA Nursery Landscape contest and set a goal to achieve top ten status in the nation, which they did, placing seventh.”

Bringing out the best in students

Marshall brought out the best in his students, as evidenced from their successes and fondness and comments from all who know and worked with him. 

“In everything I did as a teacher, I always tried to convey several important concepts,” Marshall said. “One, hard work matters in everything you do, even in the little things. And hard work and success in little things transfers to the big things of life. Just adopt a consistent attitude of hard work.

“Closely associated with that is one of my favorite sayings, ‘Don’t leave anything on the table.’ Don’t have regrets about what you should have done. Don’t walk into a test or a competition unprepared, knowing you could have studied or worked on one more thing that would have helped you succeed. 

“This was our motto in preparing for competitions. We always sought out what we still didn’t know and how we could add to our knowledge. If we didn’t win, it wasn’t because we didn’t give it our best.

“Also closely associated with the first two is to be excellent. Strive for perfection and excellence. It’s not that we are perfect or better than anyone else. It’s just that there is so much satisfaction in doing things in an excellent way. 

“I often shared a Proverb with them from Solomon, ‘You see a man who is skilled in what he does? He will stand before Kings.’”

Marshall shared those principles with the kids, stressing that they led to success and satisfaction in a career and in life in general. 

Ryan Brannen, fourth-generation farmer just outside of Portal, said he began farming in high school, while taking classes under Marshall. 

“We were Doc’s flagship class,” said Brannen. “My eighth grade ag class was his first year there. We tested him, but he hung in there and watched us graduate.”

Brannen said Marshall’s classes were the catalyst for keeping him interested in farming, and now Brannen’s son has taken the status of fifth-generation farmer in the family. Brannen’s daughters also learned under Marshall. “My daughter showed cows from the time she was young, and he always stayed with them late to get them ready and teach them. His dedication showed in their winning awards.

“Doc cared for kids and he showed them. And he had a way of showing us his faith without showing us. He was a great example of what a human being should be.”

Joey Lanier, who owns Lanier’s IGA in Portal, along with his father and brother, has a rich history with Dr. Marshall. “Dr. Marshall taught my wife and me back in the early 90s and taught my niece just last year,” Lanier said. “He’s touched more lives just in my lifetime than I can recall. He was an asset to the community, a great man and a great person. The community will miss him greatly.”

Family life

Marshall’s entire family collectively accumulated a lot of hours, academically speaking. Wife of 37 years Vicky had a successful 20-year-career as an elementary teacher at Julia P. Bryant School and was a seamstress before that. “Vicky’s love and support for me has truly been the backbone of my success as a teacher,” Marshall said. 

Sons Tommy and John added years of schooling to the resume. Tommy is a dentist in South Carolina and John is a doctor in Atlanta. 

Outside of the classroom, Marshall enjoys being involved in Compassion Christian Church, leading and being part of discipleship groups. 

Marshall has a few goals for retirement, like landscaping and working in his own yard with Vicky, visiting family, and playing his guitar again. He’s also already agreed to help the new agriculture teacher get on her feet in the classroom.

The longtime educator takes many memories with him. “My fondest memories are of the students I taught and all the fun and funny times we had as we spent time in class and participating in the FFA program. Every student was very special in their own way.

“The principles that drove me as a teacher all these years are two-fold: Love for my students and technical excellence in my subject. I wasn’t perfect at either, but my goal was always to grow in both. 

“All the way to retirement, I never assumed I had arrived. I always sought to care for my students as people through kindness, love and respect and tried to be humble enough to realize when I didn’t do that well. I also, even up to last year, sought to figure out how to increase my technical knowledge in the subjects I taught and how to relate that to my students.

“In all of it though, it is the students themselves that I will hold in fondest memory.”