Rory Marshall

Former Bainbridge Island resident Rory Marshall died Aug. 2 in a Phoenix hospital from cancer. He was 54.

Marshall was born Jan. 19, 1955, in Los Angeles and grew up in the San Francisco Bay area and in New Jersey. He earned a degree in philosophy from the University of California, Berkeley, and began his newspaper career at the Bellingham Herald He married fellow reporter Becky Fox of Bainbridge Island and the two moved to Bainbridge in 1982, where both their daughters were born. They divorced in 2000.

Marshall had worked for the Associated Press Seattle bureau for nearly 27 years, serving as an editor on the West Regional Desk. He covered the federal trial of leaders of The Order, a violent white-supremacist group; and a lawsuit against the late deposed ruler of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos, and his widow, Imelda Marcos. Marshall was a union shop steward for the News Media Guild, part of The Newspaper Guild. He transferred to Phoenix in June to work on the AP’s new West regional desk.

He is survived by daughters Abby Marshall of Las Vegas and Claire Marshall of St. Paul, Minn.; mother Alberta Marshall, of Troy, N.Y.; sisters Laurel Cleary of Gig Harbor and Fern Bradley of Greenwich, N.Y.; and brother Barry Marshall of Philmont, N.Y.

No services are planned. Cremation is under the direction of a Phoenix funeral home.