Date of Birth:
Monday, November 11, 1918
Date of Death:
Monday, May 4, 2015
Age:
96 years old

Mary Adams Martin

Mary Adams Martin, 96, of Rochester, died peacefully the morning of May 4, 2015, at Charter House.

She led an extraordinary life beginning with her birth on Nov. 11, 1918, commemorated around the world as Armistice Day, the official end of World War I. She was given the middle name Peace to mark the occasion. She graduated from Syracuse University in 1940; and against her parent’s advice, she promptly moved to Washington, DC, as the nation again faced a world war. By sheer good luck, she became one of the first dozen employees of the new Office of War Information, which later birthed the Foreign Information Service and the Voice of America. She reported directly to renowned anthropologist, Ruth Benedict. She married a young Georgetown University medical graduate and Army major, William J. Martin on April 22, 1944. A few years later, they moved to Rochester where he completed a fellowship in infectious diseases. He joined the Mayo staff in 1954.

Mary Adams Martin was ahead of her time. A young woman growing up in the Depression, whose first job was communicating the war effort to the American Public, she came to Rochester with a personal drive to do more. While raising three children, she also worked for KROC radio and TV in the 1950s interviewing notable visitors including Eleanor Roosevelt and President Dwight D. Eisenhower. She also used this opportunity to mentor local high school students in world affairs and interviewing skills.

As her children grew up and left Rochester for school, she joined the staff of the Rochester State Hospital in the 1960’s where she developed her lifelong interest in mental illness and chemical dependency. She later joined the Mayo Clinic, becoming an Associate in Psychiatry at the Alcoholism & Drug Dependency Unit at Methodist Hospital. From this experience, she launched the Mayo Clinic INSIGHT program, designed to help physicians and medical students explore the human side of medicine through literature and the performing arts. Over 15 years, she directed and produced more than 30 live performances in Rochester and across the U.S. by such eminent actors as Jason Robards, Helen Hayes, Teresa Wright, James Whitmore and Kathy Bates exploring topics including depression, suicide, aging, denial, eating disorders and tuberculosis. CBS Sunday Morning with Charles Kuralt hosted an extensive interview of Ms. Martin in 1990 bringing the INSIGHT program to a national audience.

When the Library of Congress in 2000 created the Veterans History Project, Ms. Martin quickly acquired the historical material and conducted the audio interviews of many Mayo Clinic physicians who were veterans of World War II, Korea and Vietnam, that revealed how their lives as health care providers were greatly influenced by their military service. All of these interviews are available online at the Library of Congress.

Her remaining years at Charter House were very satisfying, as she stayed connected to the Rochester community with innumerable visits from family and friends. In recent years, such visits were especially pleasing to her, the goodbyes increasingly difficult.

She was preceded in death by her husband in 1970.

She is survived by her sister, Jean Barbour of Syracuse, N.Y.; her children, Mary Jo of Rochester, Julia of New York City, and her son, William of Columbus Ohio. She has two grandchildren, Colleen and William and one great grandchild, William.

The family expresses thanks and appreciation to Mayo Clinic and Charter House staff for the years of kindness.

Funeral Mass at St John the Evangelist is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Friday, May 8. Visitation will be held one hour prior to the service.

Online condolences are welcome at mackenfuneralhome.com.