We celebrate this Memorial Day 2010 by remembering our father, Thomas Ray Martin, and his brave service as a United States Marine during the Korean War. Here are some photos of Tom’s life during his service to our country.
Tom is the third National Guard from the left, working crowd-control for General Douglas MacArthur.
MacArthur was Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in the Southwest Pacific Area during World War II. For his defense of the Philippines, MacArthur was awarded the U.S. Medal of Honor. He officially accepted Japan’s formal surrender aboard the USS Missouri on September 2, 1945, thus ending World War II. MacArthur then oversaw the occupation of Japan from 1945 to 1951, during which he ushered in sweeping economic, political and social changes that helped build Japan into the global economic powerhouse it is today. MacArthur handed over control to the Japanese government in 1949 but remained in Japan until relieved by President Truman on April 11, 1951. (Source: Wikipedia)
MacArthur visited Milwaukee, Wisconsin just two weeks later on April 27, 1951. He met some of the men who were under his command in the Philippines during the early months of World War II. These men included 13 Janesville, Wisconsin survivors of the 192nd Tank Battalion (Source: Janesville Gazette). Tom was a member of the Wisconsin National Guard and one of MacArthur’s personal guards during his visit. Tom was stationed outside MacArthur’s door at the Pfister Hotel and worked crowd-control.
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Our dear father Tom passed away one year ago today. We miss him very much! Today we will celebrate Tom’s life in pictures. These photos span Tom’s long life and are captured from the “Tom & Hazel 75 Years Young” book.
Here is Tom as a baby, a boy, and a young man:
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We celebrated Tom’s first birthday since he passed away by having lunch and reminiscing about him at one of his favorite restaurants on the beach. It was a nice lunch, and Dad was with us there in spirit. We had his five favorite C’s: chocolate, coffee, Coke, cookies and cashews.
Back row: Steven, Laura and Timm. Front row: Lisa, Reverend Mike and Hazel.
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One of Tom’s favorite Christmas activities was to make rosettes, a traditional Scandinavian fried cookie. We celebrated Dad’s birthday by making dozens of rosettes with a 130-year-old rosette iron that originally belonged to Grandma Semke’s mother.
After seasoning the iron, Lisa watches Heather and Ryan make our first pair of rosettes.
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Following are entries in the Memorial Guest Book for Thomas R. Martin, December 5, 1932 – April 13, 2009. Since I’m not sure how long the entries will remain on the funeral site, I’ve reproduced them here so they remain visible forever. Click here to sign the guest book, or better yet, please leave a comment below.
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Tom Martin owned a company called “Condes Corporation” which among other things built egg carton printers. These machines would allow egg producers to print over a hundred egg cartons per minute on the inside cover, outside cover and outside edge of the carton.
Condes had a near-monopoly on egg carton printers in the 1970s and 80s. At one time, nearly 90% of the cartons for eggs sold in the United States were printed on a Condes machine.
One reason Condes was so successful in this business is that no competitor machines could come close to printing egg cartons as quickly as the Condes machine. And much of that speed was due to two of Tom’s inventions, for which he received U.S. Patents.
Egg Carton Denester
One of Tom’s inventions is the “egg carton denester,” pronounced dee-NESS-ter. This mechanism fed egg cartons into the printer at high speeds. Tom received Patent 4,048,915 for his invention on April 4, 1976.
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Tom had a number of speakers at his memorial in Wisconsin in June. All of the people shown here also spoke at his memorial in Florida in April.
Reverend Dr. Michael F. Evans delivered a wonderful, heart-warming and personal service.
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Tom’s final resting place is the Wisconsin Memorial Park in Brookfield, Wisconsin. Here are some photos of the beautiful building and grounds:
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Tom final resting place is an indoor crypt at Wisconsin Memorial Park.
Tom and Hazel will be together again someday, but hopefully not soon!
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Following are mementos from Tom’s life that were displayed at his memorial service in Milwaukee in June 2009.
Tom’s Marine Corps hats, and the urn with his ashes.
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