Marshall Reid Anspach, a member of the Lycoming Law Association, died April 26, 1962.

Read the memorial resolutions:

C. P. Lycoming County, 893 February Term, 1962. In the matter of the death of Marshall Reid Anspach, a member of the Bar of Lycoming County, Pennsylvania.

REPORT OF COMMITTEE

To the Honorable the Judges of Said Courts

The committee appointed by your Honorable Court to prepare resolutions concerning the death on , of Marshall Reid Anspach, Esquire, reports as follows:

Marshall Reid Anspach was born October 4, 1895 in Milton, Pennsylvania.

He graduated from the Milton High School and The Mercersburg Academy. He received his AB degree from Princeton University in 1919 and his Bachelor of Laws degree from the Harvard Law School in 1923. He was admitted to the bar of this county in the same year. He was sometime Assistant City Solicitor for Williamsport, Solicitor to the Commissioners of Lycoming County, and Deputy Attorney General of the Commonwealth.

He was a veteran of World War I, having served in the Signal Corps.

He was President of the Lycoming Law Association in 1933 and together with his wife, the former Eleanor Wood of Muncy, Pennsylvania attended the American Bar Association meeting in London several years ago.

Outside the field of law, his interests were education, religious, fraternal and historical.

He served for more than 20 years as a member of the Board of Visitors for Franklin and Marshall College.

He was a member of St. John’s United Church of Christ. He retired in January after a term of 16 years as President of the Consistory of that institution and had been a member of the general council of the Evangelical and Reformed Church, Vice President of the Board of Business Management, President of the Church Historical Society, and a member of the General Board of Home Missions of the United Church of Christ.

He was prominent in Masonic circles, having been Master of his Lodge at Milton, past Sovereign of the Williamsport Council, Princes of Jerusalem and active in several other Masonic bodies.

He was vitally interested in history, particularly that relating to this locality. He was a founder, charter member and past President of the Tiadaghton Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution.

For many years he was editor of “Now and Then,” the publication of the Muncy Historical Society, and Secretary of that organization.

He recently revised at the request of the Commissioners of Lycoming County the history of the County prepared 30 years ago. He was a conscientious member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s committee on legal history and biography.

Perhaps his greatest influence will be in that area where he successfully blended his legal and historical interests. Every member of this Bar is in his debt for his work entitled “Historical Sketches of the Bench and Bar of Lycoming County, 1795-1960.” The research involved was formidable in itself. The preparation of the holographic manuscript ultimately printed on 350 pages was arduous, So far as the members of this committee know, and so far as Mr. Anspach knew, this history was archetypal. Requests for copies were received from the Harvard Law School, the University of Pennsylvania Law School, Columbia Law School, the Law Library of the City of Los Angeles, the Pennsylvania State Library and many others.

The best memorial to Marshall Reid Anspach is his own “Historical Sketches.” At the annual Law Day Services on May 1, 1962 there was to have been presented to Mr. Anspach a handsomely bound copy of his book autographed by each member of the Bench and Bar as a token of their “gratitude and esteem as well as further recognition of his valuable contribution to the historical literature of this area.” That he did not live to receive this honor he so richly deserved makes his death additionally tragic.

Your committee recommends the adoption of the following resolutions:

BE IT RESOLVED that in the passing of Marshall Reid Anspach the Bench and Bar of Lycoming County have lost as esteemed member and good friend whose unique contributions will be of great value to the members of this Bar and historians in the future; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of these resolutions be spread upon the records of the several Courts of Lycoming County and that copies of the same be sent to his family.

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED
Malcolm Muir, Chairman
M. Edward Toner
Michael J. Maggio
Harry R. Gibson