Bill Marshall July 25, 1950 – April 6, 2007

Some ASC members may remember Bill Marshall. He was a member for a while, read at a few of our New Age Fairs, and presented a lecture to us in May 1998 on Predictive Techniques. At that time, he was Vice President of the Berkshire Chapter of the National Council for Geocosmic Research (NCGR).

Though he was born in Fort Worth, Texas, you’d never have called Bill a Texan. He grew up in Babylon, Long Island and lived there over thirty years. The past twenty years, he lived with his life partner, Kim Andrews, in the Sharon and Lakeville areas of Connecticut.

For many years, Bill was "the astrologer" for two hours every Sunday nights on Joel Martin’s radio show on WBAB with over 100,000 listeners on Long Island. He did quick on-the-spot readings for callers. Kim tried to call in but couldn’t get through on the air. They gave out Bill’s phone number, though, and she went for a reading at his home. Only a few weeks later they began dating and they were together ever since until he passed away this spring.

A Leo with Scorpio rising and a Sagittarius Moon, Bill used to say, "Thank God I have that mutable Moon!" But the dominant fixed signs were ever evident. Kim gives a good picture of the man he was. "When something was the right thing to do, nothing could persuade him otherwise." She also reports, "He’s was the finest person I’ve ever known. Nicest, most honest, kindest, most brilliant astrologer, a person of high integrity. He took care of his mother for eight years after his father died and never lost patience with her. He never lied. It was physically impossible for him to even hide something."

Physiologically, he fit his sun sign well. He had the lion’s mane - a golden head of beautiful hair. Women were jealous. With his Jupiter in Pisces, Kim tells us he was "very sensitive, though he tried to hide it. He was a man’s man on the outside; on the inside his soul was a delicate beautiful flower. He left this world way too soon."

Five years in military school (on the Dean’s List every year) made him organized and clean and neat. He was grateful for that education. His English mother met his American father when he was in England during WWII. For a time, Bill was married and had a son, Ian Marshall, now 29.

A specialist in midpoints and cosmobiology, Bill devoured Reinhold Ebertin’s works, going beyond Ebertin, developing his own theories and ideas, which he proved in his research and readings. He had Mercury conjunct Pluto at the top of his chart with the Sun close to Midheaven. "A brilliant mind and external optimist," according to Kim, "he was the sunshine" and would always put a positive spin even on negative things he noted in a chart. But he was not a fatalist, as some people intimated. "Bill would say: ‘I totally believe in free will. I see astrology like a road map. I read the map and tell you where the potholes are. It’s totally up to you whether you take the advice of what the map is showing.’ He cared a lot about other people, too." He would do gratis readings to help people who couldn’t afford a reading and talk for hours to clients when they needed help without charging them. Kim also relayed that his readings "absolutely blew everybody away. Even if you thought ‘no way’ [about what he said], those things happened." Bill wouldn’t admit he was a psychic but Kim saw a lot of evidence of that. "When he was doing his readings, he went into another zone and picked up things that were totally amazing."

On March 14, Bill had a hemorrhagic (cerebral) stroke and was comatose for three weeks before dying on April 6. In my mind’s eye, I can still see his smiling face and beautiful golden hair.

- Janet Booth, Oct. 5, 2007