RIP: Roger A. Martin

Noted author/historian and perhaps less-noted State Senator Roger A. Martin passed away last Thursday.

He has been hailed as an historian who traced the history of Delaware through the succession of its governors.

As a State Senator, Roger struck me as a man out of time.  It was as if he viewed the Senate through the lens of an historian as opposed to being an active participant. He enjoyed listening to the music of Benny Goodman in his Senate office. He chronicled Delaware’s governors through Ruth Ann Minner. First elected in 1972,  he served in the Senate during the following parade of governors: Sherman Tribbitt, Pete DuPont, Mike Castle, Tom Carper (for two years), oh, and Dale Wolf for three weeks.

He had two brief stints as Senate Majority Leader: From 1977-78, at which point he was deposed by Tom Sharp. Then again in 1994.  The story of his ascension to Majority Leader in 1994 is interesting.  As many know, Tom Sharp was your classic Reagan Democrat when it came to keeping black people in their place.  Delaware was coming out from under a court order on busing, and Sharp, along with Wayne Smith, pushed for the resegregation of Delaware’s public schools. However, Sharp sent out mailers into the districts of Democratic senators, particularly Patti Blevins and Dave Sokola, basically calling the senators out for not joining Sharp in his crusade. That led to Sharp being deposed as Senate Majority Leader for the remainder of the legislative session.  Roger Martin, who made no enemies b/c he didn’t do much of anything in the Senate, was the beneficiary, if you could call him that. Come 1995, things were back to normal and Sharp was back as Majority Leader.

Perhaps Martin’s most notable legislative achievement was sponsoring the legislation that created the Senior Tax Credit on school taxes.  The reasoning was that, by passing this credit, seniors on fixed incomes would be less likely to come out en masse to oppose district tax referendums.

As this article makes clear, he was a man of scholarship and accomplishment.  To me, however, he was more spectator than participant during the time I shared with him in the State Senate. His writing on Delaware history will remain, however,  a singular and abiding accomplishment. Condolences to the family. He was a very nice man.