Robert Quarles Marston was born in Toano, VA, in 1923. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the Virginia Military Institute and received his medical degree from the Medical College in Virginia. His career includes a research degree from Oxford University where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar. He is the former director of the National Institutes of Health and the seventh president of the University of Florida.

In 1961, Marston became director of the University of Mississippi Medical Center and dean of the School of Medicine in Jackson, Miss. In 1968, Marston became director of the NIH, during a time marked by a bitter political battle over the direction of federal programs dedicated to researching cancer. Marston’s accomplishments include establishing a nonprofit corporation for Shands Hospital in Gainesville, creating the state’s eminent scholars program and developing programs to attract National Merit and Achievement Scholars. Marston passed away in 1976.