Today I learned of the passing of my friend, mentor and “boss” Bob Martin. He was featured in the paper as one of the many who have died due to the COVID-19 virus. He was 101 year old and, as he always was, energetic to the end.
I met Bob in the early 1970s when he was the director of secondary education for the Cape Henlopen School District, and I was the associate principal of Milford High School in the nearby Milford School District. We met at a conference and immediately hit it off with each other.
I was 31 and Bob was in his late 50s and about the age of my father. He was rather gruff and not one for small talk. One could tell quickly that he was all business, and focused on big ideas and making things work better for kids. I took to him immediately.
Bob knew his way around Wilmington and at one meeting at the new WHYY he invited me out to dinner at the famous Mrs. Rubino’s in the “Little Italy” section of Wilmington. I found out that evening that he had been the principal of Wilmington High before he moved to Georgetown and got the job in Cape Henlopen working for the first superintendent of the “new” Cape school district, Frank Mercer. So Bob knew his way around the city.
Bob was a bright and talented guy, and one who I liked being around. I told him over dinner that if anything came up in Cape, call me, as I would jump at a job to work at the beach. And he said he would.
In early 1974, Bob called me late one night to tell me that the Cape school board had just terminated a teacher and the job was mine if I wanted it. I told him I did, and that decision changed the direction of me, my family and my future.
The next day I took the Cape job and resigned my Milford principalship. Some thought I was nuts leaving a principalship for a teaching job, but I considered it a promotion, working for a guy I really liked in school district I had always wanted to be in.
That phone call by Bob changed my life and the lives of my kids and future grandkids. I had one daughter at the time and two more were coming soon.
And Bob looked out for me at Cape. He had told me that the job he offered me was “not the best” as it was a long day with a split between two schools and no planning or lunch period….that was the driving between the two schools!
So I ate lunch in my car. But I loved every minute of it!
Bob gave me the flexibility to plan, and I worked with him and Cape High Principal Mike Mock to develop the first Advanced Placement program in the district. Bob was always a forward thinker in that way. We both chuckled when we were told by some that there just were not that many “smart” kids in Sussex County (Cape now has one of the largest AP programs in the state). One of my first students was Bryan Stevenson, who went on to Harvard and future fame. Bob knew it would work, and it did.
Three years after teaching in the district, a temporary principalship came up at Lewes Junior High. The principal was ill and the district needed someone with school experience to close the year out and build the master schedule for the next year. Bob asked me if I could do it and I told him yes as that was one of the many jobs I did at 1,200-student Milford High.
So Bob saw that I got the job at LJHS in 1978, which became permanent in 1979. And that started my career at Cape Henlopen which resulted in me actually being promoted to Bob’s director’s job several years later. I later was elected to the Cape school board and was the president of the board for three years. None of that would have happened without the help and assistance of Bob Martin.
We all stand on the shoulders of those who have given us a helping hand up the ladder. I tell my three daughters and nine grandkids about Bob and how much he influenced me and where I live ... and where they live, as all of them live in coastal Sussex due to decisions I made in the 1970s thanks to the support and mentorship of Bob Martin.
He was quite a guy and I owe him a lot. He will be missed.
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