Martin Hartig

1940 - 2025

Edinburg - Martin Leo Hartig, 84, of Edinburg, passed away on March 30, 2025, after 45 joyful years of fun and adventure with the love of his life, Rita Anne (Mariacher) Hartig. Growing up in the Bronx, Martin was entranced by the air traffic at LaGuardia Airport and fantasized about flying his own plane. His family moved to Baltimore, where after graduating from high school, Martin served in the Army National Guard and worked as a telephone lineman before opening Radioland, a car stereo store and repair shop.

An avid trap shooter, he met Rita, a high school biology teacher, at the local gun range. They married in 1985. After a date at an airshow, the couple signed up for flight school, and soon after they bought a two-seater Cessna which they flew for weekend getaways, especially to the shore. Eventually they traded up to a four-seater and piloted it from Baltimore to the foothills of the Rockies in Montana. Martin also loved piloting their 30-foot sailboat across the Chesapeake Bay and piloting their pickup camper, which they drove one summer all the way through Canada and Alaska to the Arctic Ocean.

After retirement, Martin and Rita bought a fifth-wheel RV and spent six years living on the road, exploring, golfing, and square dancing. Later settling down in the Smoky Mountains near Asheville, N.C., they parked their RV in the McAllen area as a winter home. In 2009 they moved to the Rio Grande Valley for good, building a house at Monte Cristo Golf & Country Club, where Martin's friends dubbed him "Down the Middle Marty" for his consistently accurate tee shots. Rita called him her "dear, darling, sweet, wonderful man," and still treasures her many memories of him proposing each new adventure, to which she always replied, "We can do that?!"

Martin was preceded in death by his parents, Sam and Edith, and his brother, Charles. Anyone who wishes to honor Martin's memory is encouraged to seek out an opportunity for adventure in their own life.