Marshall Lafayette Ihrig Jr.

Marshall Lafayette Ihrig, Jr. passed away on Sunday, January 24th, 2021 at the Mountain Valley Hospice Home.  His wife of sixty-eight years, Patricia Evelyn Winkler Ihrig, was at his side.  Marshall spent his first years living in a tent on an Oklahoma farm.  It was the background he needed to send him out into the world.  He was a page at the Oklahoma State Legislature; a Sea Scout; a Navy electronics technician; a graduate of the University of Utah in Physics; a Navy pilot teaching Japanese pilots and flying spy planes in the Korean War.  He helped Boeing prepare the route for Apollo 11; he was on the first team to create automated reservations for airlines; he designed for IBM where he held two patents and was part of the development of fiber optics; he set-up a readiness database for the Pentagon; and he traveled around the US fixing Y2K problems.  He ran an RV park for several years.  He was involved in Boy Scouts most of his adult life and was still in contact with many scouts when he died.  He enjoyed playing an extra in the film The Hunger Games and was selected to play a financer of the contestants.  With Patricia, he served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Stuart, Virginia.  In his last years, he was working on proving his theory of climate change.  Marshall is one of five children; only his sister Lavila Ihrig Smith (97) is still living.  He is survived by his wife and his children and their spouses: Heather Ihrig and Josh Fortune; Kevin Ward and Amy Ihrig; Jill Elise Lane; Jeffrey Allen and Lady Ihrig; Stephanie Ihrig and George Hutchinson.  Marshall has 25 grandchildren, 42 great grandchildren, and his first great-great-grandchild is expected next month.  

In lieu of flowers, Marshall's family would appreciate donations for a memorial bench to be placed on the Big Elkin Creek Trail; Marshall loved the trail and those who walked it.  https://paypal.me/pools/c/8wq8qmt1s7