Robert Martin

Bob was born in New York to Charles and Mary Martin. His grandparents; Shaughnessy, Martin, Corcoran and Aherne were all Irish. Bob called himself, as did President Jack Kennedy, a third generation narrow-back; i.e., wearing a coat and tie, no longer laying bricks. The family moved to a truck farm in Dix Hills., Huntington, Long Island. His Dad kept the books and commuted daily by steam train and subway to Wall Street where he worked for an Investment Firm. Their nearest neighbor was a mile away and all roads were dirt and gravel. Eventually the family moved to the South Shore where brother Arthur was born. All sons graduated from Baldwin High School. Charles and John attended Manhattan College on track scholarships. Bob passed up a baseball scholarship to Duke to join fellow lifeguards Sullivan, Nuding, and brother John (he left college when Charles began pilot training) to Ohio State University where they became members of Chi Phi Fraternity. WWII was in progress, so Bob, John and Jack Nuding volunteered for flight training. Color perception and a locked knee injury nixed pilot school for Bob so he completed various technical schools and flew to Italy on a B-24 Bomber as a Sperry Ball Turret Gunner. His unit, 454th Bomb Group 15th Air Force, flew mission over the roof of Europe to industrial targets against the Axis. When the war ended in Europe, Bob became a Lifeguard Lieutenant at Jones beach, Long Island and received a degree from Amherst College. Graduate school was Trinity College, Dublin where, amongst relatives and friends, Bob felt like he was coming back to where he had never been. At Jones Beach Bob met and married the enduring love of his life, Monica Maria Schmid from Basel Switzerland. Monica was scheduled to return home in a year but their attraction for each other suspended that plan. Bob accepted a job teaching English and History at Chadwick School; California and they began raising a family. Monica taught French to elementary students at Chadwick School where their children, Tara, Brian and Stacy were enrolled. When Bob left Chadwick in 1956, he received an unexpected honor. The students dedicated the school’s yearbook to him with a warm appreciation for his teaching and its effect on them. Bob entered the booming aerospace industry and held various positions at Servomechanism, System Development Corp., Douglas Missile and Space, and co-founded a computer software company, Automated Services Corp. During these years, Bob attended night law school at USC and received a J.D. Degree in 1965. After a few years of practice, Governor Reagan appointed Bob Chief Counsel of the Alcoholic Beverage Appeals Board and later appointed him Welfare Director for the State of California where he played a part in Reagan’s legislative reform of the Welfare System. Bob and family moved to Rolling Hills Estates when he accepted a position as Special Assistant to Los Angeles District Attorney Joe Busch. For the next twenty-two years Bob prosecuted a variety of serious felonies, including six death verdicts, and eleven life without parole. In 1989, Bob’s colleagues voted him PROSECUTOR OF THE YEAR and hosted a well-attended banquet where he received tributes from Ronald Reagan, California’s Attorney General, LA Sheriff, LA Police Chief, Torrance Police Chief and County Board of Supervisors. Bob developed a curriculum for a Travel Law class at Junior College and taught it one night a week. Later, he used this experience in private practice. At the age of 70, Bob finally became pilot and flew Cessna 172’s at Zamperini Field in Torrance. Bob and Monica literally traveled the globe: cruises in Greece, Scandinavia, Alaska, Panama, around South America, Caribbean Islands, Hawaii, the South Pacific and a container ship to Australia, River cruises on the Mississippi, Rhine-Danube to the Black Sea, Venezuela’s Orinoco, China’s Yangtze, Brazil’s Amazon, and Australia’s Barrier Reef. They took train trips across Canada and across Australia on the Indian Pacific in four visits, they drove through all of Australia’s states including the Northern Territories Outback, circled Tasmania, and spent a week on Norfolk Island in the Coral Sea. Other driving trips covered most countries of Europe; Ireland, England, Scotland, Scandinavia, Germany, Austria, Spain and Italy, etc. as well as two trips across America. They visited American Indian sites at Mesa Verde, Canyon de Chelley, Acoma, Chaco Canyon, and Navaho and Zuni reservations. With archeologists who could read inscriptions, they toured Mayan sites in Mexico and Central America, and visited Peru’s Machu Picchu. Their favorite trips involved rented cars and houses in France, Italy, Czechoslovakia, and numerous hiking vacations at Monica’s family Villa Suvrettina in St. Moritz Switzerland. With the knowledge that all family members were healthy, loved, enjoying each other, and pursuing interesting careers, Monica and Bob could relax and indulge their most pleasurable routine of sitting side by side under a lamp at home reading a book. Bob’s brother, Charles, a former Air Force Test Pilot died in 1944 in combat in China. John, also a pilot died in air crash in 1984 in South America, and brother Arthur, a lawyer, died of natural causes in 2009. Survivors include Bob’s most loved lifelong companion wife Monica, for 67 years, daughter Tara (Jay), son Brian (Traci), son Stacy (Jae) and ten grandchildren. Services will be held 11:30AM, Friday, December 21, 2018 at Green Hills Memorial Chapel, Rancho Palos Verdes, California.