R. Marshall Truitt Jr. ’27

R. Marshall Truitt MD died Dec. 17, 1995, in Philadelphia after a long illness.

Marshall prepared at Germantown Academy. At Princeton he was a member of Arbor Inn Club. He earned his MD from the Univ. of Pennsylvania Medical School. In WWII, he was a lieutenant in the Navy Medical Corps, served with the Seabees in Hawaii and Guam, and came out as a commander.

He married Eleanor MacDonald in 1940. After the war, he worked on the staffs of the Pennsylvania, Germantown, and Chestnut Hill Hospitals. He taught at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia.

He and his wife were world travelers. On one trip, they were on a tourist boat on the Amazon River when their guide caught a caimm (alligator) which bit his arm, severing an artery. To save the guide's life, Marshall sewed up the arm with a needle and silk thread from Eleanor's handbag and then navigated the boat back to its landing.

In Cawnpore, India, the Maharajah loaned the Truitts his private elephant. On his travels, Marshall often treated natives without accepting payment.

In his last years, Marshall underwent a coronary bypass; he became blind, but he was cheerful despite his infirmities. He is survived by his devoted wife and his daughter, Julia. To them, the class extends much sympathy in its loss of a colorful classmate.

The Class of 1927