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Harry Webb Marsh was born in Moscow, Idaho, March 3, 1886, the first of three sons born to William and Mattie Marsh whose home was on the corner of First and B streets. He was educated in the Moscow City schools and the University of Idaho Preparatory School. After working for several years he returned to the University of Idaho to study mining engineering.

In 1903 he made his first trip to the Coeur d'Alene mining area where he worked for a time at the Tiger Poorman Mine before returning to Moscow. His first job upon leaving, the university came in 1910 when he began working in the assay office of the Hercules Mining Company. He also helped on the design and construction of that company's new concentrating plant. In 1912 he went to White Horse, Yukon Territory to manage the Atlas Mining Company, but due to low copper prices the mine shut down in 1913. He then went to Dawson, Yukon Territory, as an engineer with the Canadian Klondike Dredging Company, but at the beginning of World War I all the men in the area enlisted in the Canadian Army. He then went to Alaska where he was employed by the Alaska Treadwell Gold Mining Company on Douglas Island, and later by the Alaska Gastineau Gold Mining Company in Juneau.

He returned to the Coeur d'Alenes in the fall of 1915 and joined the engineering staff of the Federal Mining and Smelting Company. In 1917 he began work for the Tamarack and Custer Mining Company where he remained until 1933. He continued to work for the Day family mining interests until 1941 when he was asked to go to Boise to assume the office of secretary-treasurer of the Idaho Mining Association, a position he held until his retirement in 1959. In 1949 President Harry S. Truman appointed him to the National Technical Task Committee on Industrial Wastes where he represented the entire non-ferrous metal mining industry.

From 1935 to 1941 he was in charged of the Shoshone County flood relief program. Working with the Army Corps of Engineers he supervised the construction of 28 Civilian Conservation Corps Camps to assist with this work. One of these camps, Camp F-30 in Pritchard, was renamed Camp Harry Marsh on July 16, 1933.

His other activities included serving as Shoshone County vice president of the North Idaho Chamber of Commerce for many years and as president of that organization in 1942. He also served as treasurer of the State Chamber of Commerce. He was a member of the American Institute of Mining Engineers and Petroleum Geologists, voted an Honorary Life Member of the Northwest Mining Association in 1953, and was a member of the Elks and many other clubs and organizations.

While working in Alaska in 1913 he met Lovina Willson whom he married in Seattle June 8, 1916. They had two children.