Terence (Terry) Edwin Martin

A tribute to Terence (Terry) Edwin Martin from his friends

It was with great sadness that close friends of Terry Martin heard that he had passed on April 12th 2023, after a lengthy illness. He was the son of Edwin and Mary Martin and is survived by his partner, Dr Ursula Storb, and sons, Gavin and Darrell.  

Although he had a long and fruitful career as a tenured professor in the field of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology at the University of Chicago, he was brought up in Adelaide and attended Brighton High School from 1954 until 1957, followed by Adelaide High School in 1958. He then graduated in biochemistry from Adelaide University followed by a PhD from Cambridge University.  

During his high school years, he formed a very close friendship with John Dallwitz, Uwe Proske and Ron Shepherd. The bond between these friends grew over numerous adventurous camping excursions to the Flinders Ranges and snorkelling trips to the reef at Port Noarlunga. They shared an obsession with colour slide photography and an uncompromising but friendly competition for originality. One of their most adventurous trips was participation in a South Australian Museum expedition to the Nullarbor Caves in 1960.

Terry had an especial interest in jazz from even his primary years when he and Ron collected, discussed and exchanged early jazz records which he played on his old wind-up gramophone. He maintained his interest in jazz throughout his life, being very involved in the Chicago jazz scene and in the organisation of the Chicago Jazz Festival. In 1987, he arranged for the Dave Dallwitz Jazz Band to play as part of the Jazz Festival in Chicago.  

Over the years, Terry kept close contact with these friends who, in spite of their different careers and interests, continued to share a love of colour slide photography and jazz. On his various return visits to Adelaide there were a number of commemorative shared trips to the Flinders, and social slide evenings where individual personal obsessions were humorously resurrected and enjoyed from old times.  

Terry also kept in touch with individuals in the Adelaide jazz scene. He is very much missed, though his presence remains strong in our recollection of those many earlier activities and the photographs taken over so many trips and over so many years.