Martin J. Medhurst

1952 - 2021

Martin J. Medhurst

October 15, 1952 - February 11, 2021

Dr. Martin Jay Medhurst, 68, passed away February 11, 2021, at Clements Hospital UT Southwestern in Dallas. Burial mass will be livestreamed and recorded for later viewing at St. Jerome Catholic Church in Hewitt, date and time to be announced at www.WHBfamily.com. Burial will follow at Mount Calvary Cemetery in Bryan. A separate memorial service will be held in the spring.

Marty was born and grew up in a loving family in Alton, Illinois, where his life centered on his faith and community in the Assembly of God Church. He was a consummate athlete, medaling and lettering in track and field at Alton High School as a shot putter and discus thrower, and lettering and earning the place of starter (offensive line) on his football team. Rejecting an offer to play football for Notre Dame, Marty graduated from Wheaton College in 1974, earned an MA in Speech at Northern Illinois in 1975 and then a PhD in Communication in 1980 at The Pennsylvania State University. He met and married Margaret Gentzel at Penn State and adopted her daughter, Monica; they moved west, when he took a teaching job at University of California, Davis, and continued his research and publishing that he had begun as a graduate student.

In 1988, after their divorce, he moved to College Station, where he taught at Texas A&M University for 15 years. While there he founded five scholarly book series (with Michigan State University Press and Texas A&M University Press), wrote numerous scholarly books and articles, founded an award-winning journal that he edited for over 20 years, and developed the Program in Presidential Rhetoric for The George Bush School of Government and Public Service, a program hosted jointly with the Department of Communication, which produced ten annual national conferences, with both academic scholars and civic practitioners in attendance.

It was at A&M that he met and married in 1989 his wife, Laurel Canglose, and he adopted her son, James Snedden. Already a loving husband and father, he joyfully welcomed their baby daughter, Julia, into his life just shy of his 40th birthday. In 2003, he accepted a joint appointment in the Department of Communication and in the Department of Political Science at Baylor University, where he established yet another book series at Baylor University Press. He retired from Baylor in May of 2020, having achieved the rank of Distinguished Professor at Baylor and in the National Communication Association.

He was an avid sports fan, enthusiastically supporting the teams of his alumni institutions and those at the institutions where he taught. He held a special love for the Baylor Bears until the end of his life.

A skilled story-teller and public speaker, a practical joker with a remarkable sense of humor, Marty brought joy to academics, friends, neighbors, and fellow parishioners. One of his greatest pleasures was directing and mentoring young scholars in graduate studies, including directing daughter Julia's MA thesis at Baylor. He was an active member of St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church in College Station and became a member of St. Jerome Catholic Church in Hewitt, serving and teaching in the RCIA program.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Maurice Medhurst and Wilma Belangee Medhurst.

Left behind to cherish his memory are his wife, Laurel Canglose of Texas; daughter, Monica and her husband, Linus Oliver, of California; son, James Snedden of Texas; and daughter, Julia and her husband, Scott Bray, of Texas; brother, Michael Medhurst and wife, Linda, of Illinois; sister, Avonda and husband, Paul, of Iowa; stepmother, Odean Medhurst of Illinois; two grandchildren, Rosalind and Ella of California; nephew, Nathan Medhurst of New York; nephew, Sam Fessler of Illinois; niece, Kate and her husband, Adam Viet, of Iowa; niece, Lisa Cangelosi Brown of Texas; nephew, Chris Cangelosi and wife, Rachel, of Texas; nephew, John Cangelosi of Texas; and numerous great-nieces and great-nephews and cousins.

The family wishes to thank the Cardio ICU care team at UT Southwestern for their extraordinary efforts, Waco Cardiology Associates, Ascension Providence Hospital, and Ascension Providence Family Clinic for theirs.

Memorials are appreciated at Caritas, Mission Waco, St. Jerome Catholic Church RCIA Program, Salvation Army, and charities of donor's choice. The family invites you to leave a message or memory on our "Tribute Wall' at www.WHBfamily.com.