Gary Marsh, PhD

Gary Marsh, PhD, of McMurray, PA passed away on October25, 2023, at age 71 with his family by his side. Born in Wheeling, WV on January 27, 1952, he was the son of the late Floyd and Alma Marsh. Gary is the beloved husband of 32 years to Valerie Yuracko Marsh, and loving father to Brian (Brigette), Eric (deceased), Gregory, and Anastasia. He is the grandfather of Zoe, and brother to Janis (Jim) Coole.

Gary was fond of wild birds, keeping feeders outside his office windows to bird watch daily. He earned a 2nd degree black belt in Taekwondo. Gary was a sports car enthusiast with an affinity for Porsches. That passion led him to be a student and eventual instructor of high-performance driving with the Porsche Club of America. His favorite thing to do was to spend time at his cottage along the Clarion River.

Gary was Professor Emeritus of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, and the Founding Director of the Center for Occupational Biostatistics and Epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh, Graduate School of Public Health. He graduated with honors with a BS in Mathematics from the University of Pittsburgh, and a MS (Hyg) and PhD in Biostatistics from the Graduate School of Public Health at the young age of 25. He joined the faculty of the Department of Biostatistics in the Graduate School of Public Health in 1978 until his retirement in 2020. Gary also served as Interim Chairman for the Department of Biostatistics in the Graduate School of Public Health. Gary became a Senior Principal Health Scientist at Stantec ChemRisk in 2015.

Gary directed occupational epidemiologic studies to investigate the long-term health effects of exposure to such agents as asbestos, man-made mineral fibers, cosmetic talc, formaldehyde, acrylamide, acrylonitrile, arsenic, chloroprene, styrene, vinyl chloride, tungsten carbide with cobalt binder, petrochemicals, aromatic amines, perchloroethylene and pharmaceuticals. Gary authored more than 300 publications in the areas of biostatistics, occupational/environmental epidemiology, quantitative risk assessment, statistical computing, and health services evaluation. He was the senior author for OCMAP and RACER – two computer software packages that assist in analyzing occupational health research. Gary also developed the original Mortality and Population Data System – a repository and retrieval system – for the National Center for Health Statistics and U.S. Census Bureau data.

He was a Fellow of the American College of Epidemiology, a member of the American Statistical Association, the Biometric Society, the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology, the Society for Epidemiologic Research, the Society for Occupational and Environmental Health, and the International Commission on Occupational Health. He was honored by the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health in 1998 at the 50th Anniversary of the Public Health School as 1 of 50 outstanding contributors in the field of Public Health of that time. Gary was awarded the Outstanding Teacher Award from the Graduate School of Public Health in 1994, in recognition of his dedication, guidance, and leadership.

Family and friends are welcome for visitation on Thursday, November 2, 2023, from 1:00 pm to 8:00 pm at Pittsburgh Cremation & Funeral Care located at 3287 Washington Rd., McMurray, PA 15317.

Eulogy and memories to be shared by family and friends at 7:00 pm. Sharing your memories is encouraged.