Robert Edward Martin

Robert Edward Martin, Jr. died October 12, 2013 at the Highland House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center.

A memorial service will be held at 3:30 p.m., Saturday, October 19, 2013 at Hull & Hull Funeral Directors. Condolences may be sent to the family at www.since1928hull.com. Contributions may be made to the National Parkinson Foundation, Gift Processing Center, P.O. Box 5018, Hagerstown, MD. 21741-5018, or at: www.parkinson.org.

Robert Jr. was born to Robert Sr. and Sarah Martin on January 9, 1931, in Flint Michigan. He attended and graduated from the public schools there, before attending the University of Michigan in 1949. He was later accepted into the Naval ROTC program at Marquette University with a major in physics and mathematics. In 1953, he was assigned to the USS Winston, an amphibious cargo attack ship, where he spent 3 years with two tours of duty in the Pacific. During this time, he married Patricia Ann Meyer, who survives.

When Robert was released from duty in 1956, he returned to the University of Michigan to get a masters in Physics, but soon realized that he was not that interested in the subject. He switched into forestry, and obtained a bachelors, masters and PHD by 1963.

Robert spent time working at the USDA forest fire laboratory in Macon, Georgia, and Virginia Tech before moving to Seattle and the University of Washington. He was project leader at the Forest Service Silviculture Laboratory in Bend, Oregon, with the charge to better understand the fundamentals of fire effects and help people with prescribed burning. He finished his career at the University of California, Berkeley. During his career he was author or co-author of over 160 technical papers and received two career accomplishment awards:
The Barrington Moore Award from the Society of American Foresters, 1996 “…for outstanding achievement in biological research contributing to the advancement of forestry.”
The inaugural Harold Biswell Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for Fire Ecology, in 2003. “In recognition of a lifetime, significant contribution to fire ecology and management in the United States.”

In addition to his wife, survivors include two sons, Steven and Michael Martin, and a daughter, Kathleen Spencer, seven grandchildren and three great-grand children.