Gen. George C. Marshall (1880- 1959) was a Pennsylvanian by birth and a career army officer who lived in many places during his life. He graduated from Virginia Military Institute and resided in Virginia during the 1940s and 1950s when he was chief of staff of the Army, secretary of state, and secretary of defense. In those roles, he was one of the few indisputably great Americans of the century.

For his plan for the economic revival of Europe after World War II, Marshall received the Nobel Peace Prize, "the only professional soldier in history to do so," Waite Rawls of the Museum of the Confederacy pointed out.

Rawls went on to comment on Marshall's Virginia identity: "Marshall was indeed a Virginian. Despite his birth in Pennsylvania, he married two Virginia ladies and considered himself a Virginian. His strong Virginia family ties led him to the Virginia Military Institute, where he became that institution's most storied alumnus . . . .He bought his only real home in Leesburg in 1941 and lived there until his death in 1959, a time spanning his World War II military role and his time as secretary of state and the author of the Marshall Plan."

Historian Cynthia Kierner wrote of Marshall, "There aren't too many post-1945 American political or military figures who were influential beyond the U.S. for their positive contributions -- and Marshall clearly was." Historian and archivist Trenton Hizer agreed: "The Marshall Plan, which rebuilt western Europe, is the greatest U.S. foreign policy success."

A. Barton Hinkle, of

The Times-Dispatch, wrote, "Few others can claim to have done so much in the service of great and noble causes, both in war and after it, than Marshall. He stands as a towering exemplar of service to his country and fealty to his principles."

Marshall, as Attorney General Bob McDonnell neatly summarized his careers, was "a man of war who built a framework for peace . . . .As a man of unassailable character, he won the respect of both political parties, the admiration of his nation, and the acclaim of the world." -- Brent Tarter