Col. Donald S. Marshall, 85, a 30-year Army veteran who saw action in World War II and Vietnam and an anthropologist who studied the languages and cultures of Polynesia, died of kidney failure Aug. 28 at his home in Alexandria.
Col. Marshall was born in Danvers, Mass., and was working on building a photography business in Boston before the outbreak of World War II. He enlisted in the Army in 1942 and was based in Panama, where he developed an interest in the San Blas Cuna Indians and a lifelong passion for anthropology and the study of complex systems.
He graduated magna cum laude in anthropology in 1950 and received a doctorate in 1956, both from Harvard University. In 1952, … (Washington post, 2005-09-07)