Bleecker Marquette was born on September 7, 1892 and graduated from Cornell University Phi Beta Kappa in 1915. Most of his work was done in Cincinnati as president of the Better Housing League of the Cincinnati Public Health Federation and of the Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority. He was chairman of the National Conference for Health Council Work and the Joint Committee on Health and Housing of the American Public Health Association, and of the National Association of Housing Officials; a member of the Royal Society of Health (England); and a member (and sometimes president) of many other national, state (Ohio), and local public health and housing associations. He won an award for distinguished service to public health in Cincinnati in 1947 and a citation from the Ohio Mental Health Association in 1955.