Thomas C. Marshall Jr

Thomas C. Marshall Jr. (February 12, 2019) was a philanthropist, historian, antique car collector and one of the world's top authorities on Stanley Steamer automobiles in Yorklyn, Delaware. Prior to his death, his home and adjoining land was created into the Auburn Valley State Park.

Early life Marshall Jr was born to T. Clarence Marshall and Esther Shallcross Marshall, and spent the first eighty-four years living in Yorklyn at the Victorian-era mansion built by his grandparents in 1897. He attended Wilmington Friends School and graduated in 1941, then Mercersburg Academy before attending M.I.T. between 1942 and 1943. He served in the US Army from 1942 until 1946 as a weather forecaster in New Mexico before joining a B-24 flight crew as an aerial weather observer in the Western Pacific. While a part of the crew he flew over the USS Missouri in the Tokyo Harbor the day of the surrender ceremony that ended World War II. for the company based in Newton, Massachusetts. While the collection peaked at forty cars, of which 24 were Steamers, Marshall Jr inherited 34 vehicles and gradually reduced that number to fifteen Steamers, two Packards and one early electric car.

He drove one of the vehicles a 30-horsepower 1912 Stanley Steamer touring car on four transcontinental tours. One spanned 8,328 miles and visited Montreal, Canada and Tijuana, Mexico before returning to Yorklyn, Delaware which he completed in 1972.

Philanthropy He served on many non-profit and philanthropy based boards including Mercersburg Academy, Historic Red Clay Valley, the Friends of Old Drawyers and the Red Clay Valley Association. As a Quaker, Marshall Jr served with multiple Quaker organizations such as Hockessin Friends Meeting and the Friends Home in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.

In 2008, he and his wife donated the mansion and four acres around it to the state of Delaware when they moved to a senior community center. The home and acreage was named the Auburn Valley State Park and an additional 300 acres was purchased to protect the rural setting of the land. Also a part of the preserve is the Stanley steam car collection housed in the T. Clarence Marshall Steam Museum. The museum building is leased to the Friends of Auburn Heights a non-profit organization that owns, maintains, and operates the largest collection of Stanley Steamer automobiles in the world.