The Marsh of Time

Whites are hanging to dry on the clothesline, chickens are clucking inside the henhouse and New Albany City Councilman Glyde Marsh is in his element.

The 93-year-old doctor of veterinary medicine seems most at home in the back yard of his house on Reynoldsburg-New Albany Road.

In spite of a pinched nerve in his back, he's sprightly as he chases the chickens, trying to catch one for a photo. And he is still an active member of City Council. How does he do it?

“If there’s any secret to my success, it’s that I was born lucky,” Marsh says seriously.

In particular, he acknowledges four pieces of luck that contributed to his success in life – and his longevity: his education; his late wife, Margaret; good doctors and a life in New Albany.

Marsh grew up in Lake County near Cleveland. His father was a firefighter and his mother was a school teacher. Marsh credits his parents for passing along their good genes and a strong work ethic. They also stressed upon him the importance of education.

“My father … had an eighth-grade education and I had a brother two years younger than I was. From the time that I was in about the sixth grade, my dad took all the homework that I had as a student and he did it, and then when my brother came along, he did the same thing all the way through high school,” Marsh says. “And then he took the civil service exams, and with this education he was able to pass them and become one of the four battalion fire chiefs in Cleveland.”

Thanks to a scholarship, Marsh was able to attend The Ohio State University, where he studied business. When his parents dropped him off at school for his freshman year, he had $38 in his pocket, with $27 worth of fees due before the start of the school year. He scored a job in the produce department of a grocery chain and, by the time he graduated, was managing the produce departments at all four local stores.

After going through executive training with U.S. Steel (he was one of only eight candidates selected, and the only one who didn’t attend undergraduate school at an Ivy League university), Marsh served in the military. At a USO dance in Baltimore, Md., he met Margaret. They knew each other for just three weeks before he was shipped to Michigan. Seven weeks later, she joined him there and they were married.

“When I look back at it, the thing that was probably the most important to my successful survival was the fact that I met and married Margaret,” Marsh says of his wife of 53 years. “She gave me a lot of confidence. … Margaret was really the port in the storm.”

After he was discharged from the military, he planned to attend medical school – also at Ohio State. He and Margaret moved back to central Ohio and scraped together enough money to buy some property. They decided to sell eggs to earn the money that would put him through medical school.

“I asked several people where was the cheapest property in Franklin County … and one of the profs told me, ‘The northeastern corner. That’s the pits out there. That’s the best place to go,’” Marsh says.

They purchased 14 acres on Clark State Road and constructed a chicken coop out of junk lumber, a fact the neighbors were none too happy about. Soon, Marsh was talking so much about chickens that a fellow OSU student suggested he become a veterinarian instead of a physician.

Thus began Marsh’s long and successful career as a vet specializing in poultry medicine. He’s still on the road about three days a week in his red Ford pickup truck to consult with chicken farmers.

Both of Marsh’s children graduated from New Albany-Plain Local Schools. His son eventually bought part of Marsh's property on Reynoldsburg-New Albany Road and built a house next door. His daughter still lives in central Ohio, too.

Marsh ran for school board at the behest of Margaret, who was very interested in politics. He served 10 years on school board, then ran for village council. His first term on council started shortly after Margaret died of cancer in 1995.

Marsh himself has had cancer twice. He’s walked away unscathed from two car accidents and has had a few other medical scares, all since resolved. In the

1970s, when he was hospitalized following a surgery, Margaret visited him in the hospital and asked him to sign paperwork transferring ownership of some of their property to her. He didn’t learn until five years later that the doctor told her he didn’t expect Marsh would survive.

“I told her, ‘For five years, I’ve been suspicious of you because of this!’” Marsh says. He'd had no idea that his life was in danger.

In the 1950s, Marsh read a study on the positive effect of aspirin on dogs with heart problems. He started taking an aspirin a day then. The use of aspirin to prevent heart attacks was not recognized by the Food and Drug Administration until 1988. Marsh remains an avid reader of veterinary medical journals.

Other than the pinched nerve, which pains him when he walks, Marsh is currently in excellent health, he says. He still has all his own teeth – a point of pride for him.

He doesn’t have an exercise regimen, but routinely walks several miles a day when visiting chicken farms. And he enjoys gardening.

One thing Margaret was great at: “She fed me well and she used a modern diet: fruits and vegetables and little sugar, little salt,” Marsh says. “I eat much more than I should. I have a … cast iron stomach. I enjoy salads and fruits and vegetables and I think it’s part of my success to stay healthy.”

He’s also committed to getting at least eight hours of sleep each night and he avoids what he calls “unnecessary medical risks,” which means sitting far away from people who are coughing or sneezing.

“I’ve been lucky in everything I’ve done so far,” Marsh says. “I hope to be lucky until the show’s over.”

Lisa Aurand is editor of Healthy New Albany Magazine. Feedback welcome at laurand@pubgroupltd.com.