Joan Marie Seckinger Martin

1931 - 2025

Joan Marie Seckinger Martin, one of the oldest residents of Wilmington Island, passed away on August 22, 2025.

She was born in Savannah Georgia on January 29,1931, the daughter of Rosalie Von Glahn Meyers Seckinger (King) and Roland Burroughs Seckinger, Jr. On 25 August 1951 she married Charles Conrad Martin. They built their life-long home on the Wilmington River where they raised two daughters and a son.

A graduate of Savannah High School, where she was January 1949 Senior Class president, and Armstrong College, Joan was an enthusiastic and accomplished member of the softball (pitcher) and basketball teams at both schools, as well as the swimming instructor at Armstrong. Happy summers spent as a camp counselor and swimming coach at Camp Merrie-Woode in Sapphire, N.C. during her high school and college years later inspired family camping trips and the building of a summer house on the Horse Pasture River in Sapphire.

Joan and Charlie were the co-founders of Southeastern Steel Contractors and Conrad Construction Company, where she served for over 40 years as Vice-President and Secretary-Treasurer. The company was well known and highly regarded throughout the Savannah-Charleston-Columbia, S.C region for their work on public and institutional buildings and on many of the condominiums, hotels, and resorts on Hilton Head Island, Savannah, and throughout the Low-Country.

Joan was a lifelong member of St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Savannah, as well as a member of the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer on Wilmington Island, where she served many terms on the church council. Joan and Charlie were instrumental in helping to oversee the building and relocation of Redeemer from a small mission church of the 1880s to its present location. As church treasurer Joan initiated the establishment of the endowment fund and supported the conservation of the church's antique textiles.

She is survived by her three children, Joanne Lukacher (Brian), Jane Lester (Stanley), and Charles C. Martin. Jr. (Sally); six grandchildren, Mason Bragg, Caroline Brennan, Julia Lukacher, Katherine Lukacher, Rebecca Dugal, and Conrad Martin, eleven great-grandchildren, her sister, Barbara Seckinger Wall, brother, James M. King, and numerous nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her husband, Charles C. Martin and her brother, Roland B. Seckinger, III.

The family would like to extend their thanks for the thoughtful kindness of Ephraim Rabhan of Buckingham at Home and our deepest appreciation for the loving care of Aleatha Lewis, Chaneta Copeland, and Kathleen Yeckley.

Remembrances to St. Paul's Lutheran Church, The Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, and Hospice Savannah.

A visitation will be held from 5:00 until 7:00 pm on Tuesday, August 26, 2025 at the Fox & Weeks Islands Chapel. The Funeral service will take place at 11:00 am on Wednesday, August 27, 2025 at St. Paul's Lutheran Church. The burial will immediately follow the service at Greenwich cemetery.