Tech researcher Roy Martin was dedicated, curious

By RICK BADIE

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

In Roy Martin’s house, good grades were expected.

After all, he’d excelled in the classroom. He skipped a grade and graduated from high school in Cocoa, Fla., a year early.

In college, he earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering at Georgia Tech. After a stint in the U.S. Army during World War II, he returned to the Atlanta school for a master’s degree in electrical engineering.

So his children were expected to bring home respectable grades from school. No ifs and buts about it.

“It was hard to be the daughter,” said Janis Martin of Atlanta. “Good grades — they were the expectation. I [recently] finished my master’s degree in nursing, so he got to see that. He was so happy.”

Roy A. Martin, 89, of Atlanta, died July 16 of natural causes at Piedmont Hospital. The memorial service will be 3:30 p.m. Wednesday on the Clara Meer Dock at Piedmont Park. Wages & Sons Funeral Homes, Stone Mountain chapel, is in charge of arrangements.

When he was 2, Mr. Martin’s parents took a vacation to Cocoa Beach, Fla. They never returned to the farm life in Tennessee. His father worked construction while Mr. Martin excelled at Cocoa High.

When it came time for college, he chose Georgia Tech and enrolled in a co-op program to pay for it.

After college, Mr. Martin worked for Western Union in New York. He didn’t like it, and in the late 1940s, returned to metro Atlanta. Georgia Tech hired him as a research scientist and an instructor in electrical engineering.

“He was going home to Cocoa,” his daughter said, “and go into business with his dad. But he was offered a teaching job so he stayed.”

In a 20-year career at Tech, Mr. Martin oversaw or played a role in several research projects, some of which were collaborations with Emory University. He was part of a Georgia Tech-Emory team that developed one of the earliest cardiac catheterization devices.

In retirement, he conducted electrical fire investigations across the country and was sought after for his knowledge of national electric safety codes and power line standards. He eventually formed a consulting firm that specialized in electrical safety.

“He was nearly 80 when he stopped doing consulting work,” his daughter said. “Someone called him about a month ago and asked him to help review a case.”

In recent years, Mr. Martin had tried to locate comrades who’d served with him in the 516th Signal Aircraft Warning Regiment in the Panama Canal. He traveled annually to Cocoa to attend the reunion of the Mosquito Beaters, an organization dedicated to the preservation of Central Brevard County.

And he kept up with current trends, said Krystel Jones, a granddaughter who lives in Atlanta.

“He was still hip to my culture,” she said, “and read about music that wasn’t from his generation. We’ve always been in awe of him.”

Additional survivors include his wife, Olivia Martin of Atlanta; a brother, Bill Martin of Winter Park, Fla.; three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.