Sept. 5, 1935 — March 8, 2025
The community has lost an extraordinary man.
Most will remember him as the owner of D&S Harley-Davidson. But Richard F. Martin was better known as Dick, or Dad, or Pappa or Pawpa to the people who knew him best. He was the man who loved riding and driving and doing anything fast, who lived to play softball, who was the first person you called to fix anything and everything, who believed life was too short to not take risks, and encouraged his kids and his grandkids and everyone he met to dream big and do whatever they loved to do.
He was born on Sept. 5, 1935, to Nora Ann Fisher and Walt Andrew Martin, who constantly moved the family from oil field to oil field in Oklahoma and Texas. He met Marie Richards at Bowlegs High School, where he played every sport and ran moonshine for a local still because it allowed him to drive fast and get paid for it.
He graduated, they got married and decided to seek their fortune in California. By 1965 they had three daughters, a new ranch house in a suburb of San Jose, the fastest ski boat on Lake Berryessa and a Harley-Davidson in the garage.
In 1969, he rode up to Oregon to visit a friend who had retired to Talent, and the rest, of course, is history. For over 50 years, Dick and Marie lived on an 11-acre farm on Colver Road in Talent. They raised kids and grandkids and great-grandkids. And they grew D&S from a tiny cinderblock building in Central Point to an old mattress factory in Phoenix in 1974, to a bigger building in Phoenix in 2000, and to a beautiful brick flagship after the Almeda Fire destroyed D&S in 2020.
He was the best — the best driver, the best rider, the best basketball player into his 60s, the best player on any softball team right up until he was 80, a lifelong Mason and the best-looking Shriner in his fez, the best teacher and coach, the best dad and granddad and uncle and neighbor and friend, the best person to have in your cell phone for any and every reason.
His big, strong heart stopped on March 8, at home, surrounded by family. He was 89.
That heart keeps beating in us: his wife, Marie; his daughters Terrie Martin, Sandy (Jon) Unruh and Kim (Brian) O’Toole; and grandkids Molly and Ben Claflin, Josh and Allissa Nelson, Jaclyn Sanford and Zach Wentworth. He leaves six great-grandkids: Gavin, Weston, McKenna, Halley, Jordi and Rylei; his sisters, Cindi (Billy) Thompson, Kathy (Greg) Graham and May Ellen (Kevin) Martin, and dozens of nieces and nephews and cousins who looked up to him as the man who took care of everyone.
He hated funerals, so we won’t put him through one. Instead, we’ll have a memorial ride — cars welcome — at the dealership April 19. In his memory, you can donate to Shriners Hospital for Crippled Children. Or, just take care of someone you love.
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