Fliers Knew Martin as Storyteller, Honest Man

The father of Orange County aviation was remembered Wednesday by friends and fellow fliers as a consummate storyteller whose word was golden.

“He was a good old boy, and his word was his bond and his handshake was his contract,” recalled pilot Milt Farney, 60, a longtime friend of pioneer aviator Eddie Martin, who died Tuesday at 88.

“He was a man of his word who enjoyed every minute of life.”

“I had great admiration for him,” said Kenneth Walsh, a World War II Marine Corps ace who won the Medal of Honor after a series of air battles near Guadalcanal. “He was very instrumental in the development of both military and commercial aircraft.

“I salute him from my position,” said Walsh, 73. “I will say a prayer for him every evening.”

Martin founded the county’s first airport and among the many businesses he started was Martin Aviation, the largest general aviation operator at John Wayne Airport.

According to the family, Martin’s body may be viewed at Brown Colonial Mortuary at 204 W. 17th St., Santa Ana, from 2 to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Funeral services will be Monday at 11 a.m. at Waverly Chapel, 1700 Fairhaven Ave., Santa Ana. He will be buried in a private ceremony at Westminster Memorial Park in Westminster. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that contributions be made to the Orange County chapter of the American Cancer Society.

Former Air Force flier and Federal Aviation Administration employee Paul E. Stebelton said, “I have a thousand stories about Eddie Martin,” whom he called a friend for 15 years.

“As a pilot, I couldn’t think of anything more delightful than sitting Eddie down and getting him started on a story,” said Stebelton, who now lives near Hemet.

It was Stebelton who in the early 1980s coaxed Martin into “giving a talk” to a group of pilots in Long Beach. “He told me he had never done that before. He was bashful. I told him try it for 15 minutes the first time. Well, 40 minutes later he was still talking.”

From that time on Martin gave speeches before various community groups. “I was always happy about that,” Stebelton recalled, “because I felt that Eddie got to meet a lot of people that he wouldn’t have otherwise, and there were a lot of lucky people who got to meet Eddie.”

Before his death, Martin, who had cancer and heart problems, had done hours of tape recordings that will be transcribed and published in his forthcoming autobiography and a history of aviation in Orange County.

Judy Liebeck, the writer, described Martin as “a hell of a man.”

“He was a great storyteller. More recently, he would forget that he told me a story and would tell it again,” she said. “The amazing thing--and I have them on tape--they were always the same, no matter how many times he told them.”