Although his father had been the secretary for the Nelson Labour Party, Marshall did not join the party until he was 32 and was quickly spotted by the Labour leader, Norman Kirk.
He was asked to stand for the Whanganui seat in the 1972 election, which Labour won in a landslide victory.
Along the way, he lost his Christian faith and became an atheist but credited his church background with shaping his political career and his stance on social issues such as homosexual law reform and apartheid.
His liberal views led an Opposition politician to refer to him as the “Red Reverend”.
When Labour took power in 1984, Marshall entered Cabinet as Minister of Education and Environment.
Later, he held the Foreign Affairs and Pacific Island Affairs portfolios.
There were several difficult issues during his watch as Foreign Affairs Minister, including coups in Fiji, the after-effects of the Rainbow Warrior bombing, and the country’s nuclear-free policy.
He retired from politics just before the 1990 election, disillusioned with the adversarial nature of Parliament.
Labour's 2014 candidate Hamish McDouall (left) with former MP Russell Marshall on the campaign trail. Photo / Lewis Gardner
He said in his valedictory speech that he had come to believe much of what happened in the chamber, as distinct from the select committees, was almost totally meaningless.
After leaving politics, he continued his formal education, graduating with a BA from Victoria University in 1993.
He took up several public positions, including as chair of the New Zealand National Commission for Unesco, and chair of Education New Zealand and the New Zealand branch of Polytechnics International.
He was a member of Commonwealth Observer Groups for elections in Lesotho, the Seychelles, and South Africa, and a trustee of the Nelson Mandela Trust.
He became pro-chancellor and then chancellor of Victoria University and served as New Zealand’s High Commissioner to London from 2002 to 2005.
Marshall was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal in 1977, the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal in 1990, and became a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2001.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, former Prime Minister Helen Clark called Marshall a “principled voice”.
