John Watson MARTIN

MARTIN, John Watson (1922 - 2017) of Tucson, died peacefully at home on Thursday, January 12, 2017 at the age of 94. John, who also went by "Jack," was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, on June 20, 1922 to John and Sarah Martin, who had emigrated from Ireland in 1911 with their daughters, Jean and Mary. In 1924 the family moved to Inglewood, California, where John attended Inglewood High School and Los Angeles City College before serving in the U.S. Army from 1940 to 1945. During that time he spent 27 months as radiotelegrapher at WXFN, on Umnak Island in the Aleutians, as part of the Alaska Communications System. He later studied at the Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara Mexico, and subsequently received his B.A. (magna cum laude) and M.A. from the University of Washington, as well as a Ph.D. in Romance Languages in 1956. Dr. Martin taught at Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, and Fresno State College, Fresno, California before embarking in 1960 on an academic and administrative career that would take him all over Latin America and to cultures he grew to love. After a Senior Fulbright Lectureship at the Universidad Central in Quito, Ecuador, he moved to Bogotá, Colombia as founding director of the Instituto Lingüistico Colombo-Americano (ILCA) and later director of the Centro de Estudios Universitarios Colombo-Americano (CEUCA), the study-abroad program of the Great Lakes Colleges Association. During this time he also taught linguistics, oversaw the development of teacher-training materials for teachers of English, and conceived and negotiated the contracts for the first training of Peace Corps volunteers outside the U.S. After a Senior Fulbright Lectureship at the Universidad De Chile, Valparaíso, Chile, he spent eight years in Brazil, where he taught and developed graduate programs in linguistics at universities in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Campinas, Piracicaba, and Curi tiba. In 1977 he moved to the University of Arizona, Tucson as a tenured faculty member in the Department of Romance Languages, which divided in 1979; he taught in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese until his retirement in 1988. Dr. Martin was a recognized authority in Spanish and Portuguese linguistics, with numerous publications and lectureships throughout Latin America. He was passionate about Brazilian culture, where he said he felt most at home. He also loved exploring Arizona and the near-Southwest. He is survived by his son, John M. Martin of Tucson; his daughters, Eileen Martin of Silver Spring, MD; Maureen Greiger of Bethesda, MD; Patricia Martin Carter of Tucson; Sara Geer of Simpsonville, SC and three granddaughters.