Martha Steinbock

June 13, 1949 – December 8, 2019

Martha Bair Steinbock was born in Eureka, California and grew up on a ranch near Arcata, California. She was the youngest of the four children of Tom and Marie Bair, a family intertwined with the history of Humboldt County.

Martha completed high school in Rio Linda near Sacramento, and attended Reed College in Portland, Oregon. There she married Joseph Steinbock with whom she had three children, Sophia, Lillian and Rose in three different states, California, Alaska, and Maryland. She completed a BA at Portland State University and an MA at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Martha worked for many years for the US Department of Agriculture. She served as Deputy Director of the Office of Technology Transfer, Agricultural Research Service (ARS) before her retirement in 2009. Her career also included work at the ARS Office in Albany, California, and United Nations agencies such as the World Food Programme and Food & Agriculture Organization in Rome, Italy. For fifteen years she served as Executive Secretary of the United States/European Union Working Group on Biotechnology.

Martha was devoted to her family, especially to seven grandchildren: Kenneth and Lawrence Coleman, Gabriela and Pierre Alvarez, and Arthur, Romina and Francesco Calvi.

She died of neuroendocrine (“NETS”) cancer in Olney, Maryland. In addition to her grandchildren, Martha is survived by her husband, daughters Sophia Steinbock of San Rafael, California and Lillian Steinbock and Rose Alvarez of Silver Spring, Maryland and their families, sisters Mary Paita of Redding, California and Rebecca Kurwitz of McKinleyville, California and devoted friends Allyson Lima of Silver Spring, Maryland and Doris Lucas of Paris, France.