Marshall Clement Kurfees was born June 3, 1904, in Germanton (Stokes County), North Carolina, the second of five children of John Wesley Kurfees and Flora Petree Kurfees. He was apparently named after a paternal uncle, who was a well-known Methodist minister. Kurfees graduated from Germanton High School and received an Associate's Degree from Mount Pleasant Collegiate Institute.

Kurfees moved to Winston-Salem in 1921 and enlisted in the Army shortly thereafter. He spent two years working as chief clerk at Fort Eustis, Virginia; then served four years in the Adjutant General's office in Washington, D.C. After his discharge, Kurfees returned to Winston-Salem and became involved in numerous local business ventures, mostly in the transportation industry. He served as executive director of the North Carolina Taxicab Association and the North Carolina Bus Association, and he held various positions in the Hennis Freight Lines trucking company.

In 1934, Kurfees married Mabel Heathman Click, who was to prove an invaluable asset in his political career. In the same year, Kurfees launched his first political campaign with an unsuccessful bid for the state legistlature. He garnered just under 300 votes, according to results published in the  Winston-Salem Journal on June 5, 1934, but gained considerable notoriety for running an anti-Prohibition campaign. Kurfees fared only slightly better in his 1936 campaign for the state legislature. However, in 1938, Kurfees ran for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. House in the fifth district; while he finished second, he carried Forsyth County by a considerable margin.

This strong showing inspired him to make his first run for mayor of Winston-Salem in 1939. Like most of the South, Winston-Salem was at the time a Democratic stronghold, and mayoral and other races were essentially decided in the Democratic primaries. Kurfees lost his first mayoral bid; he would later attribute this to his to unwillingness to kowtow to the Hanes, Wachovia, and Reynolds Tobacco Company executives who were Winston-Salem's de facto ruling class.

During World War II Marshall and Mabel Kurfees worked for the war effort in Washington, D.C. When they returned to Winston-Salem, Kurfees again became involved in politics. In 1949, Kurfees finally won the mayoral race, despite opposition from most of the same Reynolds executives. But Kurfees proved himself a highly competent administrator and soon developed a close and productive working relationship with men like Charles Babcock and John Whitaker. Kurfees cemented this relationship during his first term as mayor, when he helped rid R.J. Reynolds Inc. of a CIO-affiliated union, Local 22 of the Food, Tobacco, Agricultural, and Allied Workers of America.

One of Kurfees's first acts as mayor was to get the state legislature to allow a referendum on Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) Commission liquor stores in Forsyth County. When the resolution passed, the new ABC stores were nicknamed "Kurfees Drugstores" . Another accomplishment during Kurfees's mayoral tenure was the building of major roads in Winston-Salem, including Silas Creek Parkway, I-52, and I-40 (although Kurfees always denied any responsibility for the design of the infamous Hawthorne Curve). Kurfees was a vocal supporter of the Powell Bill, which gave North Carolina municipal governments a portion of state road use taxes.

Urban renewal was another major issue during Kurfee's mayoralty. Postwar Winston-Salem had many citizens living in substandard, unhealthy housing situations. Kurfees's administration organized projects to create low-cost housing options and to encourage downtown business development. Kurfees was also instrumental in passing the 1959 bond referendum which funded the new Forsyth Memorial Hospital. He welcomed the relocation of Wake Forest College to Winston-Salem in 1952, and he supported the restoration of the original Moravian settlement in Salem with the creation of Old Salem, Inc.

Race relations and the beginnings of the Civil Rights Movement were an underlying issue in Winston-Salem throughout the 1950s. Kurfees sought to include the African-American community in local government, appointing black members to city boards and committees and to jobs in the firefighter and police forces. Winston-Salem, however, continued to maintain segregated hospitals, schools, and neighborhoods.

Kurfees was an active and gregarious public official, keeping up a constant schedule of appearances and speeches. His wife Mabel was his executive secretary and was involved in all aspects of political life, earning the nickname "Mrs. Mayor" . Kurfees was elected to an unprecedented six terms as mayor of Winston-Salem, finally retiring in 1961. After his retirement, Kurfees served for 15 years as head of the Committee for a Model Community. This organization, funded largely by Reynolds family money, launched several social welfare programs in the city, including Meals on Wheels and the Youth Work Corps. Kurfees also served on the board of the new School of Pastoral Care at North Carolina Baptist Hospital. He remained very active in the social and political life of Winston-Salem until his death in 1991.

The folders in each series are arranged alphabetically except for the correspondence series, which is arranged chronologically.