After weeks of email exchanges and preparation, Professor John Marshall and Gail Marshall (husband and wife) arrived on April 4, 2009 to offer a helping hand to the children of Denu. Gail spent most of her time with the kids in the nursery school while John mostly worked with the older children.

  The Marshalls volunteer trip lasted two weeks.

Three days after leaving Ghana, Gail celebrated her 68th birthday on April 21, 2009 in France. [From all of us here at hwi, we wish Gail a happy birthday].

John Marshall

Professor Emeritus John Marshall, 76, was a US Navy Pilot from 1955 to 1958. He obtained his PhD in 1967 from Yale University. He worked at the Department of Philosophy in the University of Virginia from 1962 to 1999 and was the chair from 1983 to 1989. He works part-time and teaches on average one course per semester.

Gail Starling Marshall

Gail Starling Marshall was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1941 and educated at Vanderbilt University and the University of Virginia School of Law where she then taught for four years. She subsequently became a partner in a large law firm in Washington, DC and left that firm in 1986 to become Deputy Attorney General for the State of Virginia – in charge of civil litigation, consumer protection and antitrust.

In 1994, Gail became Town Attorney for the Town of Orange – where she now works part-time.

Gail Marshall has been involved with the South African Legal Services Corp which raises funds in the United States to support legal services for the poor in South Africa where she twice visited.

She has been involved in several volunteer activities in her own community including teaching young inmates English and Maths at a local jail and a reading program for young girls. She also loves working with her dog, Yaddie. She is also on a Commission for Partnership with South Africa which is sponsored by her Episcopal Church. She is also on a Board which supports lawyers to defend individuals accused of capital crimes.

John and Gail live on a farm in Virginia about one and halve hours south of Washington – Hardworking John has a small vineyard and makes wine for his family – all their five children are grown and married.

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“My husband John and I love to travel and have had the experience of living in Europe and visiting South Africa.  We are both still working part-time, so long trips are not a possibility.  Although we have volunteered in the United States (both of us have taught English and Math to prisoners studying for their high school diplomas) we have never volunteered in a foreign country.  We believe that volunteering in a school in Ghana and living in the community will immerse us in the local culture and allow us to get to know the people even though we are here only for two weeks”.   – Gail Marshall

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