Frances B. Marsh

Frances B. Marsh was an educator in the late 20th century who founded Norwood School of Bethesda, MD in 1952.

Although not now affiliated with any religious institution, Norwood began as an Episcopal parish day school. In early 1952, in response to requests from parishioners, the Rector of St. John’s Church, Norwood Parish, asked Frances Marsh, the Director of the Church’s Sunday School, to start a parish primary school. Fact|date=March 2007 The Vestry Resolution founding the Parish School indicated that preference would be given to families from the Norwood Parish and then, as space was available, opportunity would be given to other church families of the community. That fall, the Norwood Parish School opened its doors to 40 children. As a church school, it held religious services led by the Rector and operated under the ultimate authority of the St John’s Vestry.

The Parish School prospered and grew under the leadership of Mrs. Marsh. The space available at St. John’s Church, however, limited the size and scope of school activities. With the intention of finding a new location, a group of parents joined with Mrs. March in 1968 to establish The Norwood School, Inc. This non-profit corporation, governed by a self-perpetuating Board of Trustees, was created “for the purpose of conducting an independent, private school in Montgomery County, Maryland, dedicated to the fullest development of each student mentally, morally and physically in a Christian environment consistent with the precepts of the Protestant Episcopal Church…”

Unhappy that this effort to relocate the school operation was going on, the Church Vestry dismissed Frances Marsh as Director of Norwood Parish School in March, 1970. Ideological differences over racial integration between the school and the church also arose. Fact|date=March 2007 The families at the Parish School, who were devoted to Marsh and her educational vision, helped her establish the new Norwood School in temporary quarters for two years before its move to the current location on River Road in Bethesda, in January, 1972. Norwood has operated continuously since then as a non-profit, independent educational institution, without religious affiliation.