Reverend Doctor Raymond Edward Martin

May 7, 1930 - August 1, 2011
Raymond Edward Martin, son of Lysle and Bessie Martin, graduated from Haviland High School in 1948, he worked as a carpenter, farmer and rancher and served in the United States Army in the supply corps.  He then enrolled in Friends Bible College in Haviland, Kansas. After graduation, he pastored Christian and Mennonite churches in Kansas until 1962 when he was called to serve as the pastor of First Friends Church in San Antonio, Texas.  

In San Antonio, while serving as a Friends minister, he started another phase of his life as an advocate of children with needs that were not being met by the educational, medical, or judicial systems.  He founded San Antonio Friends School, Academy, and College.  As part of his work in education, he was a significant force in reforming the state's special education codes and helped to define the emotionally-disturbed classification for Texas Public Schools. He personally wrote the emotionally disturbed special education curriculum for the public school system in Texas, and was instrumental in equalizing education in Texas public schools by requiring them to provide mainstream education to children with this diagnosis.   

He and his wife Patty (Towery) had three daughters daughters, Wilma, Wanda and Melody and one son, Keith. In addition, he and Patty were parents to numerous foster children whom they raised as their own.

Throughout his time in San Antonio and Poteet he helped establish numerous Friends missions in San Antonio and Mexico.  This work continues to prosper today.   His degrees in education, psychology, and religion reflect his life-long esteem for higher education.