Marshall Ray Nelson, 87, passed away peacefully Saturday evening, March 18, 2023 after stubbornly battling through myriad ailments in recent years.
Marshall was born on Independence Day in 1935 in the tiny central Nebraska village of Keene, where his father, Clarence, ran a small bank. Both Clarence and his mother, Hazel, were the grandchildren of Swedish Lutheran farmers who settled in central Nebraska in the 1880s.
Marshall attended high school in Kimball, Nebraska, where he played clarinet in the band and running back for the football team. He majored in business at the University of Nebraska while wrestling for the Huskers and playing clarinet in the Husker Marching Band. He was active in Phi Gamma Delta fraternity and, as a senior, was chosen by the university chancellor as one of thirteen members of the honorary “Innocents Society.”
After college, he served in the Air Force for five years, reaching the rank of Captain before beginning a career in banking. He quickly decided he would rather teach. In 1969, Marshall and his wife, Connie, moved to her hometown of Falls City, where he began teaching. After several years teaching junior high math and science, he transitioned to teaching business and other courses at the high school, where he also served for many years as the assistant wrestling coach.
Marshall retired from teaching in 2000. In retirement, he served as treasurer of the United Methodist Church, served for seventeen years on the Falls City Board of Public Works, and continued to pursue his favorite hobbies of golf, fly-fishing and hiking along the continental divide in the Rockies of Colorado.
Marshall is survived by his loving wife of 64 years, Connie, who, in recent years, had cared for him through many years of debilitating health crises. Together they were deeply involved in their church, where both sang in the choir and helped organize countless events.
Marshall is also survived by his three children, Scott Marshall Nelson and his wife Janice Birk Nelson, Carrie Louise Krickbaum and her husband Bruce, and Robert William Nelson and his wife Denise Johannes Nelson, and seven grandchildren, Kelly Nelson Pook, Christopher Nelson, Quinn Krickbaum, Anna Krickbaum, and Andrew, Evan, and Eric Nelson.
There will be a private graveside service for family at Steele Cemetery and a future Celebration of Life event at a date and location to be determined. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that any memorials go to the First United Methodist Church of Falls City.
