“Back then, if you didn’t have the things you needed to make things work a little easier, you would just build them,” said Martin’s son, Greg. “That kind of stuck with him and any time he looked at a tool or anything he had, if he found a way to make it better, he would modify it.”
Following high school, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps as a flight engineer during World War II, even though farmers were exempt from service.
“He was single at the time, believed he had a duty to serve and couldn’t stand the thought of other people going into the service and not him just because he farmed,” Greg Martin said.
While on leave from the service, Martin married his high school sweetheart, Evelyn Poff.
When he came home after the war, he returned to farming, often working with his brothers doing custom farm work.
In 1954, Herb Martin transferred his knowledge of working the land to his newly founded business, Martin Excavating.
He remained involved in the business full-time until he was 66, and he continued to work part-time until he was about 80, said his son, Greg, who now presides over Martin Excavating.
That’s when he quit working full-time, which meant instead of working 60 hours (a week), he cut down to about 40,” Greg Martin said. “He worked ‘part-time’ with me until he was about 80. Whenever I needed some help here or there, he would come out.”
Martin purchased a Kodak Stereo Camera and snapped hundreds of pictures of every day scenes, including his wife and two children, family gatherings and farming operations.
“It was as ‘Norman Rockwell’ as you can get,” Greg Martin said. “He just loved taking pictures.”Herb Martin also enjoyed tinkering in his shop, modifying tools for his work and improving ordinary household or electronic items, like speakers.
His three rules for life were “Find joy in your work, love your family and maintain your faith.”
“No matter how good or bad the day was, he found some way to find enjoyment,” Greg Martin said.
Memorial donations may be made to VITAS Hospice Charitable Fund, 11500 N. Lake Dr., Suite 400, Cincinnati, OH, 45249 or Holy Name Catholic Church, 222 Hamilton Ave., Trenton, OH 45067.
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