PINEHURST, NORTH CAROLINA | The most important man in Pinehurst this week may be someone with whom you are not familiar. Few people are, and yet they should be for what he contributed to world peace.
The most important man in Pinehurst, or MIMIP, is not James Tufts, who founded the town in 1895, nor Robert Dedman Sr., owner of the company that acquired Pinehurst in 1984, nor Bob Dedman Jr., his son who is chairman, nor Tom Pashley, president of the resort. It is not even Donald Ross for his outstanding design of the Pinehurst No. 2 golf course on which the U.S. Open is being played this week.
The MIMIP is General George C Marshall, the architect of the Marshall Plan, which began the economic recovery of many ravaged European nations after the end of the Second World War.
Who knows, who dares foretell, how the world might look in 2024 if Marshall had not announced this program when he gave the commencement speech at Harvard University on June 5, 1947, saying it was “directed not against any country or doctrine but against hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos.” It is interesting to note now that the plan was initially projected to cost $22 billion (about $300 billion today) but ended up costing less than $13 billion.
Testimony to the importance of Marshall came from the highest quarters. Winston Churchill, then prime minister of Britain, referred to Marshall as “the organizer of Allied victory. It was his strategic planning that led to the Allied victory [in World War II] in Europe and in the Pacific and the unconditional surrender of Germany and Japan.”
After President Harry S. Truman left office in 1953, he was asked who he thought was the American to have made the greatest contribution of the past 30 years. He quickly answered “Marshall.”
“I don’t think in this age which we have lived there has been a man who has been a greater administrator, a man with knowledge of military affairs equal to General Marshall.”
Marshall lived the last 15 years of his life in Liscombe Lodge on Linden Road, Pinehurst, in what was then a cottage but has since been considerably extended. Like Tufts, Dedman Sr. and Ross, he is dead – he died in October 1959 – but his enormous legacy lives on in a marble memorial flanked by two brown wooden benches in a flag-bedecked glade of trees in the V formed by the junction of Carolina Vista and Cherokee Road. He is described as a “Citizen of Pinehurst” on this monument.
It is easy to ignore this glade in the hustle and bustle surrounding the 124th U.S. Open because the eye is caught by the burnished gold of the cupola of the Carolina Hotel sparkling in the distance, and the ear is cocked to the tunes coming at regular intervals from the carillon in the Village Chapel. But hurry past the memorial, as many were doing this week, eager to catch a glimpse of competitors in the U.S. Open taking place across the road, and the opportunity to learn about one of the greatest men in U.S. history will be lost.
Born on December 31, 1880, in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, Marshall became a five-star general in the Army. He was chief of staff (1939-45), secretary of state (1947-49) and secretary of defense (1950-51), the only person to have filled these three offices. He was president of the Red Cross (1949-50). In December 1953, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He died on October 16, 1959, at age 78.
Part of the tribute on his memorial reads: “He was a true internationalist who sought peace for the world through cooperation and understanding among all nations.”
“He usually wore a suit. He was a tall man, very dignified. The Pinehurst telephone book listed him simply as George Marshall.” – Audrey Moriarty
Audrey Moriarty, library services and archives director at the Given Memorial Library and Tufts Archives, just around a few corners from the memorial, is well-versed in Marshall matters. With her scholarly knowledge and silvery hair set above round glasses, she could be the archetypical custodian of a library that resembles a Hollywood set of a library. It is quiet, cool and book-lined, with box files on shelves, flags on the walls and items of memorabilia wherever the visitor looks. A chiming clock would resound around the rooms. The atmosphere is studious.
Marshall moved with his wife to Pinehurst in December 1944 to help her recover from pneumonia. “George Marshall was well known in Pinehurst,” Moriarty said. “He shopped at the A&P. There was one right down there in town,” she said, pointing. “He wandered around the town all the time. He usually wore a suit. He was a tall man, very dignified. The Pinehurst telephone book listed him simply as George Marshall.
“He was known for his honesty and candor. He often told military leaders what they did not want to hear. He valued public service. He was a professional soldier, and he thought public service was the duty of an American.”
Marshall is shown in a vintage photo taking a ride at Pinehurst (left); Gen. Raymond Odierno, the 38th U.S. Chief of Staff, lays a wreath at Marshall Park; and a closer look at the Marshall Park monument. (Photos courtesy the George C. Marshall Foundation, the Pilot and Steve Harmon, GGP)
Moriarty plucked out a clipping and read from it. “In the gallery at almost any golf match in the village of Pinehurst will be found a tall, smiling gentleman and a charming lady,” she read. “The gentleman probably answers the telephone, ‘Good morning, this is George Marshall.’ He didn’t golf. He just enjoyed it. There are pictures of him on the golf course. He would find a bench and he would watch from it. He was also known to ride his horse around the village and sometimes view the tournaments from horseback.
“Most people here knew he was an important military person,” Moriarty continued. “Pinehurst allowed him to have a normal life as any military person, not a military superstar. After the war people had to know about the European recovery plan, but maybe they didn’t know it as the Marshall Plan as we know it now. He was very much known as a man of the people.
“It was while he was here in Pinehurst that he found out he had won the Nobel prize, and while he was here many dignitaries came to see him: Queen Frederica of Greece, President Eisenhower and Lady Astor [the American-born first female member of Britain’s House of Commons].”
He was Time magazine’s “Man of the Year” for 1943 and 1947.
In 1947 Churchill described Europe “as a rubble heap, charnel house, a breeding ground for pestilence and hate.” Marshall agreed and commented: “at the same time, the patient is sinking while the doctors deliberate.”
Come to that, what do we make of that continent today? The answer is that we have a lot for which to thank George Catlett Marshall, the MIMIP.