Ryder Martin Remembered As Chatham’s Renaissance Man

CHATHAM – Ryder Martin was a man of many talents: a woodworker, musician, artist, model train builder. But it was his 25 years teaching in Chatham schools that was the most gratifying.

 “Working with students of many different backgrounds, interests and talents, and helping to develop future generations, has been exciting and fulfilling in a way that no other career can exactly match,” he wrote in the 2021 book “I Am Of Chatham.”

 Mr. Martin passed away July 8 at the age of 95.

 Mr. Martin was born in Cincinnati and attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. After two years of active duty in the Navy, he graduated with a degree in interior design from the University of Cincinnati College of Architecture and Design.

 While working as an interior designer in Cincinnati, Mr. Ryder married his wife Margaret, whom he met while both were singing in their church choir. They had two sons, Christopher and Reed, before moving to Maui, Hawaii in 1964, where he developed an art program at Seabury Hall, an Episcopal day and boarding school. They remained in Hawaii for three years.

 Mr. Martin had vacationed on the Cape since 1947, and the family decided to relocate here. After teaching art in the Nauset Regional School District for a year, he took a job teaching art in the Chatham school system, where he was to spend the next 25 years. He taught art, art history, mechanical and architectural drawing and photography as well as being adviser to the yearbook and drama clubs.

 He was a popular teacher who had a big impact on his students.

 “He was so encouraging of me as I explored different art media and put together a portfolio for submission to colleges,” said former student Alison Vreeland Douglass. “His art studio was always open to me to come and go and work on projects even outside of class time. I recall being frustrated when a clay sculpture I had tried to fashion around an incompatible metal frame broke over and over as the clay dried. Mr. Martin gently explained to me why the materials were not working well together, but nonetheless helped me to salvage the piece, which I still have today. He was one of a kind.”

Mr. Ryder was “a treasure,” said Glenn McVickar, who had Mr. Martin as a teacher and later worked with him teaching at Chatham High. Mr. Martin was advisor to the class of 1976 and was “supportive and knowledgeable” about the class members and “a true gentleman and gentle man,” McVickar wrote in an email. 

Fellow art teacher Linda Simonitsch was also from Ohio, and she and her family often socialized with the Martins. The two families sometimes traveled together. When the town’s middle and high schools were reorganized into one building, they shared a classroom. 

 “It worked out pretty well,” she said. "He was a gentleman, always. He was kind to everyone.” She recalled cabinets he built in his home and a ceiling once painted to resemble the sky.

 “He had a lot of ideas, and I think fun ideas, that enhanced both their lives,” Simonitsch said.

 Mr. Martin maintained an interest in architecture throughout his life. He and his wife traveled to Europe and other countries to visit cathedrals and archaeological sites, often taking photographs and gathering materials for his art classes. 

 “The awesomeness of the whole thing usually just bowled you over, and you couldn't help getting more excited about it," he said in a 1988 interview following a trip touring castles in England, which was sponsored in part by the South Branch Foundation, now the Westgate Teachers Fellowship Fund, which funds summer education programs for local teachers. He later served on the advisory committee of the Fund and spent several years as its chair. 

After retiring from teaching, Mr. Martin served a term on the Chatham School Committee, including a year as chair.

Mr. Martin was also a model train enthusiast. He maintained a garden railway in the yard of his Chatham home, complete with waterfalls, bridges and two loop tracks. He was an active member of the Chatham Railroad Museum Committee for many years, and set up model railway displays during the town’s First Night celebration, first at the First Congregational Church and later at the Atwood House Museum, where the trains attracted considerable attention, recalled Chatham Historical Society Executive Director Kevin Wright.

 “Ryder’s train display was the highlight of the holiday season,” he wrote in an email. On a good day, he said, the museum would get about 140 visitors; in 2018, Mr. Martin’s train display for First Night drew more than 600 visitors.

 “As much as I would like to think they came to see the museum, I know they really came to see the trains,” Wright said. “Ryder was a true treasure.”

 Music was another of Mr. Martin’s passions. He played trombone in high school and led a jazz band in college. Along with his wife, he founded a handbell choir, first at the First Congregational Church and then at Chatham High School. At the church, he sang in the choir and was on the music committee.

 “He was an amazing man with so many talents and hobbies,” noted McVickar. “He touched so many lives, and we were all the better for it.”

A celebration of Mr. Martin’s life will be held during the first week of August. In lieu of flowers, donations in Mr. Martin’s name can be made to Monomoy Dollars for Scholars, the First Congregational Church of Chatham or a charity of one’s choice.