In December 1958, the editor of the UCLA Daily Bruin commented as follows on a lengthy, and wildly controversial article, written by Marshall Yaeger, and published in two parts:
"It is simply a sincere article as originally phrased and written by a young man of genius IQ, who so objected to the educational techniques and quality of instruction that he left the university to educate himself."
The article marked the first time any student (or faculty) had unleashed such strong dissent on any campus of the University of California. It provoked at least twenty-five additional articles in various publications (soon to be uploaded to the Internet) and at least one administrative resignation.
The controversy's repercussions traveled north to Berkeley, where it preceded (and some say, helped provoke) the "Free Speech Movement" launched six years later by Mario Savio.
In February 1963, Marshall Yaeger completed his undergraduate education at Berkeley, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
When, in 1987, the Chief of Protocol of the United Nations shared his frustration that the UN had done nothing to address the growing menace of AIDS, Marshall Yaeger suggested that the 20th Anniversary celebration of the musical "Hair," the authors of which intended to present their work at the Metropolitan Opera House, be held in the UN's General Assembly Hall instead. The Chief of Protocol (Aly Teymour) then enlisted the wife of the Secretary General to make it happen.
Besides naming the first pipe-electronic "combination" organ "The Gemini," and the first Marshall & Ogletree "Virtual Pipe Organ," Marshall Yaeger was the first person to use the phrase "Gay American," when, as a press representative for the Glines in 1980, he renamed the "First Gay Arts Festival," which took place at Lincoln Center in New York, "The First Gay American Arts Festival." ("What are 'gay arts'?" he asked.)
Before Paul Corser, an executive at the American Foundation for AIDS Research, died of the disease (Marshall Yaeger wrote a eulogy for Elizabeth Taylor to deliver at his memorial service), he disclosed that the development of protease inhibitors would have taken ten years longer to win FDA approval if Marshall Yaeger hadn't secured a viable alternative (from Andy Warhol and Stuart Pivar's Art Institute) for AmFAR's choice to hold a fundraiser. Warhol describes the event in "Andy Warhol's Diaries" on page 780.
Since 2001, Marshall Yaeger has supervised a clinical trial for Anchor-International Foundation that marks the first time a sustainable weight loss system has successfully helped people lose 25 to 175 pounds for more than five years. Subsequently, in 2006, he became a member of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity.
