Marshall Daniel Sellers

Marshall D. Sellers, legendary in the world of distance running for his “Paavo” system of training and racing and the “Paavo Camps”, died peacefully in his sleep October 9, 2025 at age 79 after months of complications from heart irregularities. He lived and taught the concepts “Don’t Waste a Heartbeat” and “Every Day is a Great Day” to thousands of young adults and exemplified those tenets to his very last breath.

Born December 15, 1945 in Angola, IN, Marshall was raised on a dairy farm which was in Michigan, but his mother told him early in his life that instead of farming he was destined to become either a “preacher or a teacher” because of his strong leadership and speaking skills, and desire to help others. He chose the latter, and earned his Bachelors at Western Michigan and Masters at Indiana Universities to become a middle and high school health and physical education teacher.

At age 19, Marshall married Peggy Sellers. They raised two fine boys in the 37 years they were together while he taught in the Elkhart, IN public schools. One winter people stopped by the Sellers’ house and asked if they could cut down an evergreen from the yard to use as a Christmas tree. That literally planted the seed of an idea and Marshall and his little sons grew hundreds of evergreens for many years.

By 1971 Marshall, who had started out wanting to be a baseball coach, was coaching JV boys’ basketball when he was offered a head coaching position at Elkhart Central HS for cross country. He took the concepts he had learned about training and performance from the other sports, and developed a systematic method where athletes would direct their own training based on measurable data. Using his system, his 1973 Elkhart boys’ XC team won the Indiana State Championship, and the “Paavo’s” (named after Finnish Olympic gold medalist Paavo Nurmi) were born.

Marshall started taking his teams every summer to run and camp in remote locations so they could focus on character and personal development as well as run. This expanded into a real and viable business serving thousands of runners from across the US for the next 42 years. One of the most challenging camps took place in the Yellowstone Nat’l Park area, and finished with a run up Dead Indian Mountain which is near Clark, Wyoming. Marshall promised himself at the start he would live there some day.

By the 1980’s Marshall was also giving coaching clinics across the nation to teach the Paavo system to coaches, and Teacher’s Workshops to teach the teachers methods and techniques for in and out of the classroom. The Camps ran until 2013 when he finally realized his dream and retired to Wyoming, but he continued to travel to give clinics for many more years before handing both Camps and Clinics over to his veteran staff and beloved Paavo Coaches and began attending instead as a guest speaker.

Marshall married Suzi (Smith) Sellers in 2005 who was also a successful high school boys’ and girls’ XC coach in Illinois who had sent runners to the camps. She brought to Indiana two step children; notably the first girl Marshall had raised. Marshall learned being a parent of a teen girl was a lot different than being a coach of one. Observing his new step-daughter and her friends he joked “women speak 50,000 more words a day than men, but I think these girls have exceeded that at just this meal”. He embraced his two new children and took loving care of them as if they were his own while proudly watching his own adult sons create wonderful families and build successful businesses following their father’s other famous slogan “Extra Effort is the Key to Success”

Marshall was busy building a house out of a repurposed cabin and barn in Wyoming, appearing at reunions and seminars, giving advice and encouragement to the generations of old and new coaches and runners, and enjoying his Wyoming lifestyle down to his last day.

The world of running mourns the loss of an era and its founder, while those who knew him best will miss the shy but tough little farm boy who just loved everyone he met and wanted to help them to become “Better to be the Best” in their activities and their lives.

Marshall is survived by his wife Suzi Sellers, prior wife Peggy Sellers, sons Jim (Dawn) Sellers and Dan (Maribeth) Sellers, Step Children Alex Yaeger and Hanna (Blake) Yaeger-Busch, Grandsons Rich (Emily) Sellers, John Sellers, Justin Sellers, and Mytchell Sellers, 2 great grand-children, Sister Lorna Van Meter, Sister-in-law Jean Sellers and many wonderful nieces and nephews whom he adored. He was preceded in death by his parents Harold and Vesta Mae Sellers, adored brother Graham Sellers, brother-in-law Don Van Meter, sister-in-law Sandra Sellers, and nieces Cindy Meade and Lisa Meade.

Visitation will be held from 12 noon until 2 pm Saturday, October 18, 2025 at Beams Funeral Home, Fremont, Indiana.

Funeral Services will follow at 2 pm Saturday at Beams Funeral Home, Fremont, Indiana. Pastor Jim Erwin will officiate the service.

Burial will be at Mundy Cemetery, Kinderhook Township, Michigan.

In keeping with Marshall's wishes, if you desire, please make a contribution or a donation in his memory to your favorite running organization.

Following the burial at Mundy Cemetery, A celebration of Marshall's life will be held at Bethel Gilead Community Church, 876 Block Road, Bronson, MI 49028.

Church opens at 3:30 and starting at 4:00 with pie and coffee. Public invited to the livestream sharing 5-7:30 pm and public invited to the church too. Eastern Standard Time. Mute until called upon by Tony Guy moderator.

Below is the link to the Zoom call and the Meeting ID number.

https://us05web.zoom.us/j/2957629652?pwd=a20ua8fxW9JFyZkS3O2StBEaAHz8Df.1

Meeting ID: 295 762 9652