Jo Breen wrote:

Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2006 08:10:13 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Fwd: Re: Eddy Martin

Hi there,

...thought you all might like to see a write up in the Boston Globe about the death of Eddy Martin (my mentor -- the one who brought me on board on both the Senator's Boston AND DC staffs!)

Edward Martin, 86, US official, longtime confidant to Kennedy
By Bryan Marquard, Globe Staff December 5, 2006

In his first bid for the US Senate in 1962, Edward M. Kennedy was looking for good staff members. Edward T. Martin was the second person to join his campaign.

"Eddy had been a first-rate reporter and a Marine drill instructor," Kennedy said. "He had it all: a great Irish touch to everything -- humor, soul, and sentiment. And he was fun."

For more than 40 years, Mr. Martin was an aide, adviser, confidant , and friend to the senator, leaving occasionally for jobs with government agencies and always returning for a campaign or a key moment in Kennedy's life.

"Eddy Martin was a part of our family, and he could do everything well," the senator said yesterday in a telephone interview. "He was absolutely incomparable as a friend these many years."

Mr. Martin, who also held prominent posts in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, died of cancer yesterday in his Dennisport home. He was 86 and had never really retired until becoming ill a few years ago.

"That was one of the things that stood out about Eddy," said Paul Kirk, a former Democratic National Committee chairman. "He was knocking on the door of 87. His physical looks and spirit always belied his age by about 20 years."

Among the times Mr. Martin returned to assist Kennedy was when his poll numbers were sagging in a 1994 reelection campaign against Mitt Romney, now the state's governor. Kennedy prevailed, winning with 58 percent of the vote, and the election became fodder for the years of good-natured kidding between the senator and Mr. Martin.

"He was right so many times, but I used to joke with him about some of his political judgements," Kennedy said, alluding to his successful campaign against Romney and his earlier, failed bid in 1980 for president. "In 1980 he said, 'This is your year, Ted. This will be a blowout.' In 1994, he said, 'Mitt Romney -- he's just a businessman.' "

Mr. Martin grew up one of six children in an Irish Catholic family in East Boston. He graduated from Boston College High School and was attending Boston University when World War II began. He left college to join the Marines and was a drill instructor before serving in the Pacific theater.

Rather than return to Boston University, he launched his career as a reporter after the war, working for newspapers in West Virginia and Rhode Island before returning to Boston. He married Marguerite Pothier 58 years ago.

From 1948 through 1962, Mr. Martin worked for the Boston Post, the Boston Traveler, and then the Boston Herald Traveler. In jobs ranging from reporter to city editor, he was involved with most major news involving Boston during those years, including the Brinks armored car heist trial. He also covered the presidential inauguration of John F. Kennedy.

"As a beat reporter, he covered Jack Kennedy from his first election to Congress, writing about politics in Boston," said Mr. Martin's son Michael of Bethesda, Md. "Apparently President Kennedy took a shine to him, and when they were putting together a Senate campaign for his brother, they asked him to come aboard."

In the late 1960s, Mr. Martin left Edward Kennedy's staff to become public relations officer at NASA. President Jimmy Carter appointed Mr. Martin in 1977 to be regional director of HUD in New England, where he worked on redevelopment of Boston's waterfront and recovery efforts after the Blizzard of 1978. Mr. Martin also had worked as director of space management for the federal General Services Administration during the early 1980s.

Always loyal to the Kennedy family, Mr. Martin returned often in official or de facto roles. He was the Edward Kennedy's top administrative aide in Washington from 1971 through 1977 and directed the senator's Boston office in the 1980s.

"He was very fond of the senator and his whole family, particularly Senator Kennedy," his son said. "They used to kid each other quite a bit. There were some inside practical jokes, paybacks here and there."

"He had just spectacular good common sense and decency -- he was the gold standard as a human being," Kennedy said.

When the husband of one of Mr. Martin's sisters died, his son said, he took care of his sister and became a surrogate father to her nine children.

"He had a heart as big as Massachusetts Bay," Kennedy said. "I don't think anyone had a more loving wife and family."

Though Mr. Martin ostensibly retired 16 years ago, "I never really heard him use the word 'retire,' " his son said. "He retired from the government, but he always had his hand in something."

Mr. Martin worked in the 1990s with the RM Bradley real estate firm in Boston, his son said, "and he used to say that when he was done with everything, he was going to get himself a truck and open up a business as a handyman on the Cape. He was a do-it-yourselfer. He would just as soon go to the lumber yard, get some wood, and build something."

"He was a fiercely loyal friend ," Kirk said. He was a genuine, down-to-earth guy. A lot of guys put on airs for certain people, but Eddy was just who he was."

In addition to his wife and son, Mr. Martin leaves two daughters, Marilu Sweet Spector of Jamaica Plain and Jane Doncaster of Pittsburgh; another son, Thomas of Beverly; four granddaughters; and two grandsons.

A funeral Mass will be said Thursday in St. John Catholic Church in Quincy. Burial will be in Blue Hill Cemetery in Braintree.

© Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.



Edward T. Martin

Of Dennisport and Quincy, formerly of Rockville, MD, Dec. 3, 2006. Beloved husband for 58 years of Marguerite E. (Pothier) Martin. Devoted father of Marilu Swett Spector of Jamaica Plain, Jane M. Doncaster of Pittsburg, PA, Thomas E. Martin of Beverly, Michael P. Martin of Bethesda, MD, the late Susan E. Hayes and her husband Patrick T. Hayes of Dennisport. Survived by 6 grandchildren. Brother of the late Sr. Marie Therese, O.P., the late Mary Martin, the late Gertrude Downing, the late Estelle Flanagan and the late William Martin. Also survived by many nieces and nephews.

Funeral from the Sweeney Brothers Home For Funerals, One Independence Ave., QUINCY Thursday, Dec. 7 at 9:15 AM. Funeral Mass in St. John the Baptist Church, 44 School St., Quincy at 10 o'clock. Relatives and friends are invited to attend. Visiting hours Wednesday, 4-7 PM. Interment Blue Hill Cemetery, Braintree.

For those who wish, donations in Mr. Martin's memory may be made to Father Bill's Place, 38 Broad St., Quincy, MA 02169. Late W.W. II US Marine Corps Veteran.

Published in the Boston Globe on 12/5/2006.