]By Stephen Smoot
“My husband and I are the ninth generation of our family to farm the land.”
For much of American, and all of Pendleton County, history, such people formed both the foundation and the backbone of society and community. Fort Seybert’s Kelly Marsh can point to an ancestry of strong men and women, often of either German, Swiss, or Lowland Scottish/North English stock, who traversed a difficult landscape, hacked their productive lands out of the virgin forest, defended their families and farms from hostile Indians and French, then settled in to battle the weather, tough times, Civil War, and whatever other slings and arrows of outrageous fortune that mankind, Nature, and Nature’s God elected to aim at them.
The tragedies, travails, and tremendous resilience of family farms that endure over generations breed their own sort of aristocracy – one based not on wealth, power, or massive domiciles, but on devotion to God, country, community, hard work, common sense, and, “to make it better than it was before.”
“It” could mean the land, a business, the local community, or anything else.
Marsh states that it “instils pride that we can keep it going in the family for that long” and that the secret to longevity in agriculture comes from being “good stewards of the land.”
She has taken the values learned from the land and her family’s experience on it to realms as different as poultry production and defending America from malefactors in cyberspace.
Last year, “Women We Admire” released their list of 50 women to watch in West Virginia. They assemble lists of accomplished women for each state and in 2024, Marsh earned a place on the list for her initiatives and accomplishments.
“Women We Admire” is a professional women’s network that provides news and information on women in leadership positions in business, medicine, motherhood, sports, entertainment, and more.
The organization honored Marsh for serving as the vice president of financial operations at GuidePoint Security. The Herndon, Virginia based company provides cybersecurity analysis and solutions for a number of commercial and government clients.
“Women We Admire” reported in their write-up that Marsh “joined GuidePoint Security in 2018 and oversees all finance, accounting, and tax functions for the company.”
It went on to state that “she is an experienced finance and accounting professional in corporate financial processes, budget performance, financial reporting, internal controls, and team leadership.”
“We provide products and services largely domestically and a bit internationally,” said Marsh of GuidePoint. She added that “cybersecurity is a great industry to be in. Unfortunately, it’s in such high demand. “GuidePoint,” she shared, “is a leader in the industry, continuing to capture market share, and growing very rapidly.”
Marsh, like many West Virginians, works in an industry with an eye to the future, but also keeps one foot firmly planted in traditions. Last July, she was elected to join the board of the Virginia Poultry Growers Cooperative.
The VPGC has earned an unusually strong position as it moves into its third decade of operation. It opened for business on Nov. 29, 2004, in the wake of Pilgrim’s Pride shutting down a major processing center in Hinton, Virginia. It combined that facility with a Broadway, Virginia, feed mill.
Turkey growers had faced the loss of a local and convenient market for their production, but endeavored to develop their own with significant help from both the Commonwealth and federal governments. From the beginning, VPGC stands out as one of the few such operations 100 percent owned by the growers.
“It’s unusual for a co-op to be thriving in the current poultry market,” explains Marsh. She went on to say that the market for turkey in the United States has entered a phase of decline. VPGC, however, will “never put all our eggs in one basket,” or remain satisfied with the status quo.
According to their website, “VPGC has continued to innovate in the field of processed turkey, becoming one of the first commercial turkey processors to offer antibiotic free and organic products, going beyond industry and customer standards in areas such as food safety and animal welfare.”
On top of her responsibilities with the co-op and GuidePost, Marsh also pitches in to help her husband, Doug, three children, and “five amazing employees” run the family farm in Fort Seybert. Harper, age 11, and the five-year-old twins, Will and Luke, “keep us full of love and laughter and grounded in reality with running to gymnastics, soccer, cheerleading, and music class.”
The family attends Main Street United Methodist Church where Marsh heads the Angel Tree program. She also chairs the Brandywine Elementary School Local School Improvement Council, serves as secretary for the Brandywine School Association, and coaches elementary level recreation league cheerleading.
She and her husband, along with Garrett and Stefanie Aumann, founded Country Roads Collision in 2021.
A solid foundation in life often starts with one’s parents. Steve and Jane Conrad of Fort Seybert said, “We are quite proud of Kelly and her accomplishments.” They added that “we think she sees her role as a Christian, wife, and mother as primary in her life, but she certainly juggles many hats and does it all with success.”
Like many others, Marsh used the values of her upbringing as a pathway to personal success and broad impact. Jane Conrad shared that growing up in “small, rural Pendleton County” will not hold a person back, and “it’s the best place in the world to live and raise a family.” She went on to say that “Pendleton County women can compete with men and women anywhere. Kelly is proof of that.”
Part of the reason why Pendleton County creates so many success stories comes from the values shared by a community whose primary pursuit still lies in tilling the soil and tending to livestock. As the old poem reads (for many, in the voice of the venerable Paul Harvey) “and on the eighth day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, ‘I need a caretaker.’”
“So, God made a farmer.”
