“The influenza epidemic gilded another star on the University’s great service flag when it carried off John Henry Martin ‘16, Sergeant in Ambulance Company 11. He was stationed with his unit at Camp Fremont, California, at the time of the scourge and died there on October 17, 1918.” (TYEE, 1919, pg. 45.) He is buried in Spokane, at Greenwood Memorial Terrace. (bit.ly/uw_martin)
Born in Ritzville, John was the oldest of Benjamin Martin and Mattie Eliza Greene’s three children. He studied at Whitman College — where he was known as Tubby — before enrolling at the UW. John graduated with a degree in chemistry in 1916 and was a member of Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity. After graduating he worked as a chemist for the International Cement Company near Spokane.
John enlisted on May 19, 1917, “among the first from the University to answer the martial call.” (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, October 20, 1918.) On May 24, 1917 — shortly before he departed for training in California — he was married to Whitman classmate Elsie Virginia Wilson. Elsie never remarried and pursued a career as a dietitian, eventually becoming a Professor of Dietetics and an original faculty member at Duke University’s School of Nursing.