John C. Martin

John C. Martin, Jr. died on April 5, 2014 in a Grand Rapids, Michigan retirement center, at the age of 96. He was preceded in death by his wife of 65 years, Mary Helen Baldwin Martin, in 2008.

Funeral Services will be held on Friday, April 11, 2014 at 11:00 a.m. at Oak Hill Cemetery in Cameron, Texas with Rev. Drew Weber officiating. Visitation will be held from 10:30-11 a.m. on Friday at the graveside.

They had four children: Nella, John III, Robert (now deceased), and Helen Margaret (Maggie). The three surviving children live in Grand Rapids, Michigan: Nella Pearson and her husband Don, John and his wife Jan, and Maggie Rowe and her husband Gary.

Grandchildren include Jennifer Pearson Boxrud, Robert Pearson (wife Debbie), Dell Pearson Reistad 9husband Garth), Sara Rowe Lewis (husband Chris), Jessica Rowe Hogeterp (husband Josh), Samuel Martin, JR Martin, and Ashley Rowe Ambrose 9husband Jason).

Great-Grandchildren include Bradley and Brooke Boxrud, Rachel and Max Pearson, Nanna and Lilja Reistad, and Kieran Lewis.

John was born in Cameron, Texas on November 18, 1917. He was co-valedictorian of his high school class at C.H. Yoe High School in Cameron. He received a Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Rice Institute (now Rice University), where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and to the precursor of Tau Beta Pi, and he received a Master’s degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, also in mechanical engineering. While at Rensselaer, he became a full member of Sigma Xi.

After working for General Motors in Detroit and at an aircraft plant near Dallas, he was employed as a management consultant with the Emerson Engineers and became a partner with that firm. As a result, he and his wife lived in a number of cities around the country. In 1956 he joined Westinghouse Electric Corporation as a management consultant, based at their headquarters in Pittsburgh but working at many locations in the United States and abroad.

After his retirement in 1986, John and Helen returned from Pennsylvania to their home state of Texas. He designed and supervised the building of their home of almost thirty years in Hunt, in the Texas Hill Country near where they had spent their honeymoon in 1942.

John had many hobbies and avocations. He taught himself woodworking as a child and made furniture including a maple baby bed that has been used by fourteen babies through the generations. He was a prize-winning photographer who developed, enlarged, and printed his pictures. He loved back-packing, camping, and exploring. He was an accomplished white-water kayak enthusiast and made many excursions on lakes and rivers in Canada, Maine, New York and Pennsylvania. He especially loved the Guadalupe River in Texas, where he continued to canoe and kayak in retirement until shortly before his death.

John and Helen were members of the First Presbyterian Church in Kerrville, Texas and later the Methodist Church in Hunt.