Bernie Marvin: A Modern Day Renaissance Man

Reprinted as published in The Bridge Weekly newspaper, Woodsville, NH

By Shauna Kimball

Piermont, NH – You never know what event, person or object will spark an interest in the heart of someone to lead them in the direction that determines their life story.  For Bernie Marvin of Piermont, NH, it was a camera, a Brownie Reflex Hawkeye to be exact, that he had obtained when he was about 10 years old and in the fifth grade.  Bernie was born in Winchester, MA, a town west of Boston, the youngest and only boy in a family of five siblings.  He was educated in the Winchester school system and graduated from Winchester High School in 1955.  Two weeks later he was on a train headed for Parris Island, South Carolina, where he successfully endured Marine Boot Camp…but, that is getting ahead of his story.

That small Brownie camera took center stage for much of Bernie’s school years.  He built a dark room in his mother’s jelly closet in the basement of their home where he processed his film using chemicals that he had purchased at the Winchester Camera Store.  He had a charge account there beginning when he was in the sixth grade, which he used to buy supplies for what had become a photo business.  At school he sold copies of the photos that he had taken in classrooms, at school events, dances and parties.  He also used the knowledge that he had gained through the use and mixing of chemicals in the darkroom for various science fairs.  During his high school years Bernie became a photographer for the Winchester Star, a local newspaper.  He covered ball games, car wrecks and any other event that the paper needed.  “Photos by Star Photographer Bernie Marvin” were the words under each of his photos.  His mother was very proud that her son had earned the title of “star photographer”!

By the end of his high school career Bernie looked at his life, realized that he was not ready for college, and decided to get ahead of the draft and enlist in the US Marine Corps.  Two weeks after his high school graduation in June of 1955, Bernie was on his way to Parris Island, SC.  As a self-proclaimed long-haired and undisciplined 18 year old, he had a rude awakening, but found this enlistment to have been the right decision.  After basic training he went for more training to become a basic rifleman. Eventually, his background in photography caught the eye of the Marine Corps and he was assigned to Photography Services in Quantico, VA.  This specialized assignment gave him the opportunity to document the action of the troops as they trained and went on overnight exercises.  He continued to participate as a rifleman, but had the added responsibility of documenting the actions of the troops. 

He had the desire to travel and to become an Embassy Guard, and intended to put in for a transfer, but those above him wanted him to stay with the photography assignment.  When he was told of an opening in Leatherneck magazine, based in Washington, D.C., he transferred there and became a combat photographer for this Marine Corps-staffed independent magazine.  This opened doors for Bernie, at the age of twenty that he could never have imagined.  He met people like Staff Sergeant Lou Lowery, who “on February 23, 1945, accompanied a 40-man combat patrol from 2d Battalion, 28^th Marines to the top of Mount Suribachi” on Iwo Jima where he photographed the first raising of the flag. (https://www.flickr.com/photos/usmcarchives/albums/72157663982316197/page2); David Douglas Duncan a man best known as a war photographer whose work was prominently featured in Life magazine (https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2018/06/08/618301773/david-douglas-duncan-photographer-of-wars-and-picasso-dies-at-102); and Richard Tregaskis, war correspondent and photojournalist, who authored several books including Guadalcanal Diary and Vietnam Diary (https://www.nytimes.com/1973/08/17/archives/richard-tregaskis-author-dead-at-56-correspondent-in-nine-wars-was.html), all of whom were alumni or associated with Leatherneck.

Bernie was given leave in July, at which time he went to Meredith, NH, where he had worked as a boy on the Moulton farm.  After about a day, he received orders to return to Leatherneck immediately.  Within two days, he was with the Marine Corps amphibious forces with the 6^th Fleet, which landed in Beirut, Lebanon in July, 1958. At the age of 21, Bernie had been assigned to the 2d Marine Division where he continued his duties as rifleman and photographer. People that he met during this time became very important later in his life. 

Sergeant Marvin was dispatched to the Middle East where he reported to the Fleet Admiral on the USS Taconic.  Years later, after moving to Haverhill, NH, he met Haverhill resident the late George Boveroux who he discovered had been Commander of the USS Taconic during the time that Bernie was there.  As an independent photographer he was totally alone, responsible for “securing” his own chow and finding units with whom to travel.  He had to get his own supply of film and he remembers sleeping in Olive trees in Beirut.  He was arrested twice by the US Army, who he says “didn’t like my attitude.”  At one point when he was undergoing fire, he ducked into the doorway of a building where he noticed a woman who he discovered was Dickey Chapelle, “a tough independent combat photographer with the Marines in WWII”.  She was a well-established and well-published freelancer with True Life magazine and Reader’s Digest. “I was with some real talent.”  In 1958 she ended up in Cuba at the time when a group including Fidel Castro, his brother Raul and Che Guevara had formed a revolutionary unit that they called the 26^th of July Movement whose goal it was to overthrow the then dictator of Cuba, Batista.  She was with them and documented with photos their movements, which included hiding out in the mountains, raids and the January 1, 1959 march into Havana.  (https://www.jsonline.com/story/life/green-sheet/2016/11/30/dickey-chapelle-covered-castro-cuban-revolution/94616774/ In June of 1959, Chapelle came to the office of the Leatherneck magazine in Washington D.C. and gave a slide show of her time in Cuba.  “It was really exciting to see it all.  It was amazing for a woman to do this at that time in history.” She was later killed in Vietnam when on patrol she tripped a booby trap and died instantly.

Bernie recalls his time as a combat photographer overseas as a tough existence, one that included thirty days at a time with no shower or shave.  There are, however, events that will live with him forever.  One such occurrence was when he came upon an orphanage while on patrol.  This home for children was run by the Sisters of Charity.  He said at the time his unit arrived the children playing outside ran inside for fear of the Marines.  Not wanting to leave such a negative impression, he approached the Sisters and talked with them.  He was able to document through photos their meeting with the Marines as well as the eventual return of the children when sixty of them came outside to sing to the marines.  They gathered up their C Rations and when the interpreter explained that they were being offered “real chow”, they accepted it “handily”.  Fifty years later, about five years ago, he won a battery powered tractor worth about $250.  After pondering what to do with it, he sold it and took the money to an orphanage in Rochester, NH, which is run by the Sisters of Charity, the same organization as in Lebanon. 

On July 4, 1959, Bernie finished his military duty and he came home to Winchester, MA.  “It was nice to live like a civilian.” He enrolled in business school at Boston University but discovered that this was still not the place for him.  He got a job as a portrait photographer and went to school nights, studying history and writing at Calvin Coolidge College and Portia Law School.  “I was always working toward a degree that I never got.”

In 1961, he began the next chapter in his life, marriage to Polly Robertson of Piermont, NH.  Their two boys, Spencer and Bernie, were born in ’62 and ’64.  He continued working with portraiture while the family lived in the towns of Maynard and Winchester, MA before settling in Kingston, MA.  It was in Kingston that a local publisher company “Pilgrim Publishing” caught Bernie’s attention, so he called on the publisher.  This visit resulted in a new job, that of photographer and writer for three magazines:  Cranberries, Metals Casting, and Antique Auto. He was able to travel throughout the country and parts of Canada taking photos and writing stories for these magazines.  He recalls meeting the then CEO of Ocean Spray, who, as it turned out, had known Bernie’s father.  Through this connection, he was able to gain advertizing for the Cranberries magazine. 

Bernie’s work with newspapers began when he was hired as ad man by Bob Melville of the Silver Lake News.  It was in the old day of “paste up”.  He was responsible for headline writing, covering news and writing stories.  Being involved with a local newspaper gave him “the opportunity to be involved with all kinds of interesting things.  That was good stuff.”  This newspaper was eventually sold to Old Colony Memorial of Plymouth, MA, published by Joseph Bittinger, whose grandfather, Paul Bittinger, published the History of Haverhill (NH) in 1888.  In 1975, Bernie stepped out and with the help of his family established the Kingston Voice, a weekly newspaper.  He was the publisher, photographer, writer and inventor of the infamous “Frank and Earnest” column.

The Marvin family moved to Haverhill, NH in 1978, and he worked for Bob Huminsky of the Journal Opinion before going freelance for all area newspapers and ad man for many local businesses.  He once again called on his family’s help as he started the North Country News in 1986.  Four years after selling the newspaper to Bryan Flagg of Warren, he joined forces with Peter Kimball in 2004 to begin The Bridge Weekly, where “Bernie’s Beat” was born.  Since that time, Bernie has written over 800 “Beats”, made up of things that happen, he has seen, read or heard about.  He has recently published Volume I – The Best of Bernie’s Beat: Tales, Yarns and Legends! and is currently working on Volume 2 – The Best of Bernie’s Beat; C-Rats and 782 Gear.

The 12 years that Bernie served as a part-time officer with the Haverhill Police Department under then chief, the late Steve Savage was preceded by the three years spent in the US Army National Guard in Plymouth, MA, a unit that he joined in 1974.  During that time he served as a Military Policeman with the 772 MP Co. and was the head of the Special Reaction Team, a team involved in enforcing school integration as well as stopping the rioting in South Boston. He was working closely with the Boston Police Department at the time of the South Boston area rioting.  He was again reactivated during the 1978 Blizzard and took a stint that required three weeks away from his family as he helped communities impacted heavily by the storm.  While a resident of Kingston, he was a member of their police department where part of his assignment was to enforce the MA Wetland Protection Act.  Bernie is no longer actively involved in law enforcement, but he is a member of many organizations and activities within his community of Piermont including Emergency Management Director and he operates the Emergency 9-1-1 program for the town.  He is also a prolific writer and photographer of local news, a bread baker, husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather.  He is quick to point out that his successes have been a partnership with Polly.  “She has put up with a lot.  She has been in it every day and is very supportive.”

Volume I – The Best of Bernie’s Beat: Tales Yarns and Legends! can be purchased locally at The Bridge Weekly office at The All Seasons Plaza, 50 Smith Street in Woodsville.  It is also available through Amazon.com.