G. William “Bill” Martin
Bill passed away on Feb. 11, 2024, in Arizona. He was born in Oakland, California, on Aug. 8, 1942. He was the only child of George J. Martin and Violet M. Vasilovich-Martin. His family moved from Oakland to Danville, California, and he attended his high school years being a loyal member of the Class of 1960 at San Ramon High School. All of his life, he was surrounded by loving friends from those years.
During high school, he worked for the local funeral director, and after graduation, he attended the San Francisco College of Mortuary Science to fulfill his lifelong dream of becoming a funeral director/embalmer.
His first job after graduation was for Lough and Ouimet Concord Funeral Chapel, where he became a lifelong friend of John and Sharon Ouimet and their children.
After serving his apprenticeship, he moved to Mountain View, California, to work at Spangler Mortuary prior to his marriage to his San Ramon Class of 1960 sweetheart, Janice (Jan) Root. They were married on July 7, 1963. After six months, they moved to Los Altos so he could manage the Spangler location in that city. Their daughter, Janelle, was born during that time.
The next career change was to move to San Leandro so he could join the C.P. Bannon Mortuary in Oakland, California. That was his dream job because of his introduction to his mentor, Don Sawyer. He and Don became a team and Don also became a dear friend and a father figure to Bill. Bill always said he wouldn’t have been the educator, presenter or quality embalmer if it wasn’t for Don’s tutelage during his C.P. Bannon years. They welcomed their son Bradley (Brad) into their life, and their family was complete.
Bill left C.P. Bannon Mortuary in 1977 to become a sales rep for the Dodge Chemical Company. He moved from the Bay Area to the Seattle area to travel a territory of Washington, Northern Idaho, Western Montana and Alaska. He also became a member and presenter for the Dodge Institute Sunshine Seminars and gave many programs for state associations across the U.S. and in Mexico and Canada. Bill also published many articles for the Dodge magazine. He is also credited with the invention of a fingerprinting procedure still used by many state patrols, the FBI and funeral homes to help the identification of loved ones.
He retired as “The Dodge Man” in 2016 with many friends and lots of great memories. He and Jan moved to Florence, Arizona, in 2020 into a retirement community to live close to their daughter, Janelle, and son-in-law, Ron Steffan (who were also high school sweethearts).
Services for Bill were held on March 8 at the Heritage Funeral Home in Florence, Arizona. A reception followed after the funeral. You can review the service in Arizona by clicking this link.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU9_K8cQAPn_Mc9byNmgRpqLmog8R4i3c
A second service was held on March 23 at Yahn and Son Funeral Home in Auburn, Washington, with a reception following after. Please visit www.yahnandson.com to share a memory of Bill. There will also be a link on the Tribute Wall to access the livestream of Bill’s memorial service in Washington.
Bill is survived by his wife of 60 years, Jan, his daughter, Janelle Steffan (Ron), his son, Brad Martin (Brownen Nettles-Martin) and his beloved grandchildren, Alixandra (Ali) Steffan, Katrina Steffan and Odin Nettles-Martin.
Friends were requested to wear red, if possible, as it was Bill’s favorite color. We are requesting, in lieu of flowers, that donations be made to the Bill Martin Scholarship at the WSFDA. A scholarship that was given in his name by the Washington Funeral Directors upon his retirement in 2016. Information can be found on www.wsfda.org.
