Herbert W Marsden

Herbert W. Marsden, 74, of Silver City died of prostate cancer on Monday, February 4, 2019 at his home.

    He was born in Syracuse, New York to Herbert W. Marsden, Sr. and Sarah (Hays Marsden) Lawson.  His sister Millie (Schmidt) and he and their mother and father lived in Ithaca NY.  After Herbie graduated from Ithaca High School, he left for Cambridge, Massachusetts to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).  He worked at the Boston Sleep and Dream Lab as Expert-At-Large and there met his lifelong girlfriend, Gail Stanford.    Herbie spent most of his time as a child collecting electronic devices, TVs and radios, taking them apart and reassembling parts to function as a working item or sculpture, a skill he maintained throughout his life. He felt that living in a college town (Cornell University) and next to a factory (Morris Chain Factory) influenced him for the rest of his life. His life in Cambridge, MA was spent with his friends, The Wasted Lives For Peace. He became his political self there, attending anti-war demonstrations and learning about Marx and Engels and Communism and Socialism. He never lost his crusading energy for equality and opportunity for all people. 

   Herbie and Gail moved to San Lorenzo NM in 1972, and Silver City a few years later.  His energy helped create the Silver City Food Co-op, CATS TV, the Boston Hill Open Space, the San Vicente Trail System, and the Graffiti Festival.   He was a charter member of the Mimbres Hot Springs Ranch and a key participant in the killing of the ill-conceived Relief Route.  More recently he met weekly with several of his friends, the ANTS (Anarchist National Trail System), to maintain trails and pick up trash.  Herbie was an electrical contractor and worked as an electrician at Kennecott Copper (the Lazy K) Chino Mines at Santa Rita and was a Control Systems Repair Technician at the Ivanhoe Concentrator for Phelps Dodge.  He loved working with industrial-sized electricity and equipment.  His interests ranged broad and deep:  electronics, electricity, technology, building with mud, politics, industry, hiking, biking.  He built his own home, a free-form adobe inspired by the Catalonian architect Antonin Gaudí.  He and Gail travelled widely, not the least of which was exploring the small towns and vast emptiness of the Southwest.  Car camping in their van in out-of-the-way places was one of his favorite activities.

   He loved deeply his wife Gail, son Billy, daughter-in-law Katherine, granddaughter Nava, and sister and brother-in-law Millie and Ron Schmidt; and partners-in-crime, Ed Ludwig and Frank Drysdale. In his later years he became a student at WNMU in the Art Department, taking some painting and many semesters of sculpture. Because of his great love of the Art Department at WNMU, his memorial service will be held at Parotti Hall behind the Fine Arts Auditorium on Saturday, February 23rd from 2 to 5pm.   If you'd like, consider making a donation to the WNMU Foundation, PO Box 1158, Silver City NM 88062, with “In memory of Herbie Marsden” in the      note section for an art scholarship.

Cremation has been entrusted to Baca’s Funeral Chapels.

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