 He was born in <unk> , Virginia , a small unincorporated community near Williamsburg , in 1923 . He graduated from the Virginia Military Institute ( VMI ) in Lexington , Virginia with a bachelor of science degree in 1944 . While attending the Medical College of Virginia ( MCV ) in Richmond , Virginia , he married Ann Carter Garnett in 1946 . Following his graduation from MCV with a doctor of medicine degree ( M.D. ) in 1947 , he received a Rhodes Scholarship to attend the University of Oxford in Oxford , England . While studying at Oxford 's Lincoln College , Marston worked under Nobel Prize @-@ winner Howard Florey , Norman Heatley and other scientists from the research team that developed penicillin as the first antibiotic , and graduated with a degree in research science . 
