Dr. Karl Martinez

Dr. Karl MARTINEZ Former Chief of Electrical Systems for the Boeing Company, passed away quietly after a long illness on Oct 18, 2003. A longtime resident of the Hawthorne Hills neighborhood, he was living at the View Haven Adult Care Home in Lake City at the time of his death. Born Nov 4, 1908, in a village near Guanajuato, Mexico, he came to the United States as a toddler to escape the turmoil of the Mexican Revolution. His family settled in Manhattan, KS, where Karl attended public schools and graduated from Kansas State University with degrees in Electrical Engineering and Physics. He moved to Seattle in 1935 to accept a teaching fellowship at the University of Washington. He met and married Lillian Rose Eastberg Leonard of Bainbridge Island, WA, in Nov 1937. That same year, Karl left the UW for the Boeing Airplane Company where he worked on various civilian and military aircraft starting with the 307 Stratoliner and ending with the X-20 Dyna Soar. Between 1945 and 1950 he established an electrical systems research lab - the first of its kind in the U.S. His work at Boeing made him a widely known expert in his field and he was lent to MIT as a lecturer in 1956. In 1958, he was one of 12 Kansas State University alumni honored with a Distinguished Service Award, the highest award the school confers. He was feted at a 1967 Boeing dinner as one of the 110 pioneer employees who had been essential to helping the company "think big and grow big". He retired from Boeing in 1971. He worked briefly for the U.S. Department of Labor following retirement and occasionally served as a consultant to various foreign and U.S. government scientific advisory boards. He was a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the Boeing Management Association, the Oldtime Barnstormers, the Masons, the Lake City Elks, and the View Ridge Swim Club. He was a docent at the Museum of Flight. He enjoyed travel and spent many of his retirement years exploring by ship, rail, and bus such places as Norway, Mexico, Hawaii, Alaska, the Caribbean, and almost every U.S. state. He had a passion for photography and recorded many of these adventures with his trusty 16 mm Bolex movie camera. He was always a very private and very conservative man who had great pride in his country, great respect for education and the doors it could open, and a great love for his family. Karl is survived by his wife Lillian, two daughters, Kay Martinez Leslie of Bothell, Washington, and Sherry Martinez Engebritson, of Coupeville, Washington, two grandchildren, David Leslie of Hailey, Idaho, and Charlene Randle of Wichita, Kansas, and four great grandchildren, Carmen, Giovanna, Matthew, and Sophia. He also has a sister, Carmen Cordova, of Denver, CO, and a brother, Daniel Martinez, of Wichita, KS. A private memorial service was held at the Bleitz Funeral Home Chapel.