Marcellus, a Nebraska native, arrived in Steamboat Springs by stagecoach in 1904. In the company and fashion of the town's children, he immediately began spending large amounts of wintertime on skis. He and his brother Hollis were among the first students Carl Howelsen taught to jump in 1914.

Marcellus’s inventive instincts were stimulated by contact with the creativity of early jumpers like Howelsen and Peter Prestrud. He became a partner in the Groswold Ski Company of Denver, where he toyed with the idea for a metal ski and patented the first American 3-point binding (for Cross-country, jumping, downhill and slalom). He sold a car-top ski carrier to the A&P Co. of Seattle, and he designed the roller devices that enable the Steamboat Springs High School Band, which "skied as well or better than they played", to participate on skis in off-season exhibitions.