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3.20.2003
Jeffrey Martin, 33; music was his outlet
Jeffrey W. Martin knew what it meant to work hard, deciding at a young
age that he wanted to be a lawyer and then paying his way through law
school at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio.
He spent his summers during college working at the Boston law office
of his older cousin Robert L. Martin, who remembers Jeff as a motivated
student and adventurous traveler.
"He was really inquisitive about life," Robert Martin said.
"He was really getting started."
Jeff, 33, earned the respect of his colleagues at John Hancock Insurance
Co. in Boston, where he worked for four years, providing legal counsel
for the firm's trading and brokerage subsidiaries.
His supervisor, John Morin, described Jeff as an affable future leader
with a knack for instilling confidence in others, and as someone who could
work with anyone.
Heavy-metal music allowed Jeff an outlet from the pressure he put on
himself, his relatives said. Great White was one of his favorite groups,
and he had photographs of himself with the band's guitarist, Ty Longley,
who also died in the fire.
"He had personal notes from the band," said David Bloom, husband
of Martin's stepmother, Dru Bloom, of Nashville, Tenn. "He just loved
that music."
Morin said he found a list of concert dates through June in Jeff's desk
that included the Feb. 20 concert at The Station and another Great White
show on Feb. 23. Jeff and a friend went to The Station. The friend made
it out of the fire.
Jeff drove more than an hour from his new apartment in Melrose, Mass.,
to the West Warwick club, but it wasn't the farthest he had traveled for
a show: he spent his vacations following bands throughout the country
and across Europe, and hiking and mountaineering.
Born in Boston, Jeff grew up in Massachusetts and spent his teenage years
in southern California. He earned his undergraduate degree in political
science at University of California at Santa Cruz.
He was a Thanksgiving fixture at his stepmother's in Nashville, where
he showed his lighter side, cajoling relatives into joining him on late-night
forays to the grocery store for Milano cookies and Little Debbie snack
cakes and on trips to used-CD stores for his favorite music.
Besides his cousin and stepmother, Jeff leaves his mother, Suzanne Fox,
of Carson City, Nev., and his brother, Stephen Martin, of California.
He was the son of the late Kenyon Martin, a nationally known mime.
At the memorial service at John Hancock's corporate headquarters, Morin
told the family that he would always remember Jeff's bright promise.
"Any time I see another young person starting out in his career,
I'll think of him," Morin said. "I can't help but make comparisons."
David Bloom said all the hard work had started to pay off for Jeff.
"He was reaching a point in his life where he was really happy,
and that was a good thing," Bloom said. "He was a kid on his
way up."
-- Louisa Handle
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