Max (Maximiliano) Martinez

Max Martinez was born November 25, 1924 in Glenwood Springs, New Mexico and died February 19, 2015 in Castle Rock, Co. He is survived by his 4 children, 5 grandchildren, 1 sister, Lucas, and too many nieces and nephews to list in this memorial. He was the baby, the last one of 12; 7 boys and 5 girls.

He was raised on a ranch a few miles west of Reserve, New Mexico where he spent the first 15 years of his life breaking horses, branding cattle, hunting, working in the family sawmill, and doing all types of a rural ranch lifestyle activities.

His life completely changed in 1939 when he made the decision, along with the rest of his large family, to become a Seventh Day Adventist. There were 2 large family baptisms that year, the 1st one in May; and he was baptized in the second one, in September.

The family left the Ranch shortly after, made a move and a short lived stay in Dixon, NM where he 1st met Mary Espinosa who would later become his wife; and then a year or so later they made a more permanent move to Corrales, NM with the rest of his family.

He was the 1st graduate of a new school which later became Sandia View Academy in Corrales. It was during these youthful years that he made the decision to become a minister. In order to learn a better and more refined Spanish than the tortured, mangled New Mexico dialect, he, along with his sister Lucas, went to Montemorelos, Mexico where he took on another 1st. He went to Montemorelos in 1941, the year the school was established. He completed one year in Montemorelos, returned to the States and then continued his Theology studies at Union College in Lincoln, NE.

After that 2nd year of studies, he came home for the summer and then went to South Texas to help a Senior Pastor as an intern with some Evangelistic meetings. After the meetings were completed, he was asked to stay on and pastor the small congregation that grew out of the meetings and to pastor a few other churches in the area. He never looked back. That was the start of a long, rewarding and successful life of a Seventh Day Adventist Minister. He spent another year or so in South Texas then went back to New Mexico where he married the best woman I will ever know, Mary Espinosa, on August 31, 1947.

He began, in earnest, his life of a young minister, pastoring a few small town mountain churches in Northern New Mexico.

Then another big change. In 1949, he was called to move to San Francisco, Ca.

The small town boy was moving to the big city and again, he never looked back.

October 1950, Paul, his 1st son was born and for the next few years dad pastored churches in San Francisco, San Jose, and Santa Maria. He was rewarded for his dedication and hard work with his ordination in 1953 while he was pastoring the church in Santa Maria. He continued his work in Central California with a move to Hanford where his 2nd son, Max was born in April 1954. A few more moves came throughout Central California: San Jose, then Fresno and then the big audacious move, leaving his beloved west, for Chicago, IL. in the summer of 1960.

Dad loved being a minister. He loved every aspect of the job and profession. He loved to preach. He loved leading and planning all manner of church activities. He loved ministering to and helping: the poor, the sick, the young people, old people, married people, single people, black people, brown people, white people. He loved his flock. And his flock loved him. And more than anything about his ministry, he loved to minister to the un-churched. That was by far and above his pièce de résistance.

While pastoring a large church in the heart of Chicago his 3rd son, David, was born in October, 1962. His churches in California had been primarily Mexican American and Mexican, while almost every country in Latin America was represented in his Chicago church: Puerto Rico, Santo Domingo, Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, Mexico, Colombia, El Salvador, Mexico and others.

The fall of 1963 brought the biggest change of all: a move to Venezuela. The Mission Field. The mission term was for 5 years. During those 5 years, dad pastored a church in Caracas and a church in Barqusimento, where Nina, the baby of the family, was born in October 1965. For the last 2 1/2 years of the 5 year mission term, dad was the President of the West Venezuela Mission. During those years dad traveled to all the churches in the Mission via car, bus, plane, and to churches in remote villages via canoes, horses and donkeys. He baptized people in churches, the Caribbean Ocean and swollen rain forest rivers, where the deacons had to use large sticks to scare away the crocodiles before anyone could be baptized.

After the Mission term was completed, it was time to come home and from 1968 to 1979 dad pastored churches in Los Lunas, NM, El Paso, TX, Denver Col and then a 2nd tour through Chicago.

Then came another big change. Dad became the ministerial Secretary for the Texico Conference. This assignment meant that instead of preaching in one church every week he preached in a different church almost every weekend throughout Western Texas and New Mexico. It also meant that instead of preaching in Spanish every week, he now preached in English some weeks and he preached in Spanish other weeks. Whichever language requirement presented itself? He met it. Ingles o Espanol.

The last move of his career came in 1982. He moved to Keene to take on new responsibilities and a new experience. He became the Ministerial Vice President of the Southwestern Union. Now he got to preach everywhere: Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. English, Spanish, youth meetings, church revivals, evangelistic campaigns, camp meetings, Sabbath School training classes. It didn't matter the occasion. If a preacher was needed, Dad was Johnny on the Spot. As I mentioned above, Dad just plain loved to preach.

Dad retired in 1989 and he and my mother returned to where it had all started 40 years before, their beloved New Mexico. The best years of their lives began. Dad and mom now had the opportunity and joy to be near and around their families whom they had left behind so many years before. Mom got so see here brothers and sisters on a regular basis and dad got to visit with his brothers and sisters also; just about whenever they wanted.

But wait. The work was’nt over. There was more preaching and teaching left to do. Dad started a new ministry. A new mission, for just a few more years: 15 to be sure. He bought a pick up and a travel trailer and started a new work with the Native Americans. And boy did dad hit his stride. He loved-no. He REALLY really loved working with the Indians. In fact, he sort of became one. Many of you, I know, witnessed the metamorphosis. Dad and my mother went to reservations all over the country: New Mexico, Arizona, Oklahoma, North and South Dakota, New York, and Utah. And once again, he took on his old duties of a pastor: preaching, organizing, and helping, helping, helping. The helping as you all know never ceased.

I’m sure my dad would have been happy to live out his life in New Mexico, but my mother had other ideas. She wanted to live near Nina and her two babies, Brooke and Andrew. So in 2005, my parents moved to Colorado. This is really when his retirement began.