Noel Martin made a living fixing things in the military and in industry. He makes his life fixing his community.

THE DINNER

6:30 p.m.

Martin home in Port Hope

Shrimp Linguini, Tossed Salad, Vanilla Ice Cream with Strawberries

THE DISCUSSION

Noel Martin knows that he can find a technical solution to just about anything.  Friends and neighbours send him everything from light fixtures to lock sets for repair.  He claims that he “doesn’t do toilets”, but even so he has been known to make an exception.  As much as he relishes a technical challenge, he is slow to acknowledge the wide variety of people that approach him for more intuitive solutions.

As if to illustrate the point, he has been working with Small Town Radio in hopes of bringing a community radio station to Port Hope.  He says, “they’re working on the licence but I’m not into all the politicking. I’m into technical things.”  His regular presence at Town Council meetings suggests otherwise.  His advocacy has resulted in changes that range from new stoplights to free parking for veterans.

Noel served in the Air Force and remembers the time fondly saying, “I look on the military kindly. I’m not sure I want to be in it now, but if I was 18 or 19, I’d consider it. I’d recommend it.”  He is the treasurer of the local Air Force Association.

When asked if he is one of the many who go to the bridges along the Highway of Heroes to mark the return of soldiers’ bodies, he says “I can’t do that. I was on the honour guard when I was in Germany. I buried about 12 young guys, pilots and airmen.”

When asked if he understood the sacrifice being made when he enlisted his answer is clear: “no, absolutely not. Nobody joins the military understanding.”  He values the time he spends with veterans explaining that “if they were in the war they won’t talk about it. It’s a shame they don’t tell the story because people need to know it. There families do not even know it. Some finally realize that their story is not going to be there if they don’t tell it.”

As Noel was starting his family, industry was becoming more and more interested in military trained technical experts who could work with computers.  He had tired of the moves required in the Air Force and accepted a position at Honeywell.  Despite the fact that he had tired of moving his family to new military postings, he made many moves himself as he rose through the corporate ranks to the position of Director.  He says, “I’m a starter and I get things going. Once it’s maintenance, it’s time to change.”

If there is one thing he has changed it is that “possibly if you talked to my children they’d say they know me better now. The job I had, I was gone all the time.”

Now, he is simply going all the time.  He is learning to play guitar “to keep [his] mind active”.  And his wife makes time to read to him daily since macular degeneration has made it difficult for him to enjoy this pastime on his own.

He is a captain of Neighbourhood Watch and repairs items for Habitat for Humanity.  He is an active member of the Probus club and knows that people refer to him as “the mayor of the subdivision”.  Quite simply if it needs to be done and no one is doing it, he will do it.

STILL DIGESTING

There are so many ways to be dependable.  Noel Martin left school at the age of 15.  His mother had been working all of his life and his father had already died.  He recalls selling newspapers at the age of 8 wearing knickers his mother had sewn from old coats.  The poor boy cap he wore certainly fit.

He knows that life has given him every opportunity “to just learn how to do things”.  And he has done a lot. With some prodding he can list the places he had gone and the jobs he has had.  His wife mentions most of his community contributions.  And he shifts awkwardly when his attention is drawn to the fact that some outside his family view him as a father figure.

It is symbolic that someone who has such a technical background is losing his sight due to macular degeneration.  Increasingly, he finds his way by feel.  This was not modeled by his father who drank too much nor was it a part of the military or corporate culture he worked in.  Retired, Noel’s focus now is his family and he is a father now like never before.  His counsel to me is “read to your father when he gets old”, wise advice from a man who has learned that children make parents just as surely as parents make children.  These days Noel is making family wherever he goes not by focusing on the problems, but by feeling out the solutions.