After two attempts Ralph O. Marshall has finally managed to retire as head of his architectural and engineering firm Marshall Bernardo Partnership.

Not that it took much convincing from the other partners at the firm when the petitioned him to stay on when he wanted to leave at 60 and again at 70 years of age. It has been a great career and his partners knew the value of his experience in a fiercely competitive business.

"They kept making me sign five year contracts,'' Mr. Marshall said with some amusement during an interview. "Finally I threw my hands up at 70 and said `That's it.''' Mr. Marshall, a former member of parliament, will stay on as a consultant at the firm for one year. He plans to devote himself to his two pastimes -- golf and carpentry. He founded the firm as a one-man operation in his living room in 1954 after returning home from Canada where he was educated as a civil engineer and worked for ten years.

Over the years he added partners. Now the firm employs 13 staff, ten of whom are architects, including Mr. Marshall. Up until the early 1970s Mr.

Marshall's firm was the largest on the island.

The firm has helped construct some of the largest projects on the Island including the Bermuda College, Hemisphere House, Mintflower Place, the Boyle Building, the Mechanics Building, Washington Mall, the Perry Building, and Global House.

Looking back at the development of the profession in Bermuda he criticises architectural firms for being more cut-throat these days in the way they go about bidding for jobs.

"It's a profession that's not so professional any more,'' he said.

"Professionals steal work from one another by undercutting the price. It was unheard of in the past when we had a code of conduct which included minimum fees we all stuck by. I don't think it has done the customer any good. When you start cutting fees you start cutting service.'' He would also like to see an independent tribunal headed by a judge or a magistrate set up to handle planning appeals. He believes there is too much possiblity of conflict of interest under the current system where appeals are handled by the minister responsible for planning.

He's in sympathy with the plight of David Barber who recently lost an appeal at the Privy Council, in opposition to a decision made four years ago by then-minister of the environment Gerald Simons allowing exempt company ACE Ltd. to add two-storeys to their Hamilton office. Mr. Barber argued that the addition invaded his privacy and that the minister was not empowered to over rule the Development Applications Board which had rejected ACE's plans.

"I think the way planning appeals are being done now is terrible and should be changed,'' Mr. Marshall said. "I feel sorry for Mr. Barber.'' He also believes planning inspectors often add to the costs of projects by playing it too safe and unnecessarily stopping construction. He believes they should have more technical expertise to understand the construction job they're inspecting.

"Very often something is not wrong,'' Mr. Marshall said. "It's just that the building controls officer doesn't know what's right or what's wrong and they want a letter from a structural engineer or some other expert to say that it's alright to go on. They are covering their own hides when they don't know.

Meanwhile the work has stopped and costs go up.'' Mr. Marshall calls on young Bermudians to enter his profession. He believes they can carry on the Bermudian style of architecture, although it's getting more and more difficult these days to design larger buildings according to tradition. There is a demand for trained and competent Bermudians. Half the firm's staff are Bermudians.

"It's always been a lucrative profession,'' he said. "You don't get rich off it though. I have found that it opens doors for other investments in real estate. People want you to come on board projects because of your expertise.'' His family, for example, owns the recently completed Mintflower Place. His firm is located at Hemisphere House on Church St., which he helped design. He believes the completion of the Mintflower building on Par-La-Ville Rd. was timed correctly for the market as there is now a demand for office space.

The industry goes through a cycle of boom and glut. He believes the glut in office space will come in three years as there is so much being constructed now.

"I encourage young Bermudians to join the profession,'' he said. "It could be an honourable profession. Just work for an established practice to get experience so you can be registered.'' Mr. Marshall was trained as a civil engineer at the Technical University of Nova Scotia, Halifax, Canada. He worked for the West India Oil Co., S.A., Hutchings and Milani Ltd., and DuPont Company of Canada Ltd., before arriving back in Bermuda to found Marshall Bernardo Partnership.

He was elected as MP for Southampton West continuously from 1963 until he retired from politics in 1993. He served at various times as minister for Transport, for Works, Agriculture & Fisheries, and for Health & Social Services. He also sat on the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association in a variety of positions.

He is married to Patricia (nee Vallis). Together they had three children, two of which are still alive.

RALPH MARSHALL -- Partners have long known the value of his experience.