Portrait of a Public Servant: Judge John C. Martin
Retired Chief Judge John C. Martin was honored on Friday, May 26, during a ceremonial session of the N.C. Court of Appeals. Chief Judge Donna Stroud presided over the presentation of Judge Martin’s portrait and provided remarks.
“On behalf of the Court of Appeals, we would like to thank former Chief Judge Martin for his ten years of leadership and many more years of service to the Court,” Stroud stated. “I had the privilege of serving with him while he was chief judge, and many of his improvements to the Court endure today. We are honored to accept this gift and we will proudly display it in our courtroom.”
Martin served on the court from 1985-88 and 1992-2014, and from 2004-14 as chief judge. He is a native of Durham and a graduate of Wake Forest University and Wake Forest University School of Law. He served from 1967-69 in the U.S. Army Military Police Corps, where he attained the rank of first lieutenant, and from 1977-84 as a Superior Court judge.
Chief Judge John Martin and his wife, Margaret, stand beside his portrait, which was dedicated in May at the N.C. Court of Appeals.
A deeper perspective of his life and work was provided at the dedication ceremony by colleagues John Connell, retired clerk of the N.C. Court of Appeals who served in that capacity or as assistant clerk throughout most of Martin’s tenure, and Charlotte attorney John R. Wester, a past president of the North Carolina Bar Association.
John Connell spoke first.
“I met Judge Martin when I arrived at the court as its assistant clerk in 1986,” Connell said. “He was the third most junior judge, just behind future Chief Judge Syd Eagles and ahead of eventual Chief Justice Sarah Parker. Not long thereafter he made another difficult career choice. As a single father raising three daughters, he left the court in 1988 to return to private practice and its greater earning prospects.
“However, his devotion to public service and his desire to return to the bench proved irresistible, and in 1992 he was again elected to this court to succeed Chief Judge Robert Hedrick, thus becoming the first judge to serve non-consecutive terms on the Court of Appeals.”
Martin remained on the court for the next 21 years, retiring in 2014.
“Within these walls,” Connell continued, “he forged a legacy as one of the best and most influential judges ever to sit on this bench, or any in our state’s history.”
While Martin’s body of work was truly remarkable, Connell stated that it was his leadership that set him apart.
“In February 2004, Chief Justice I. Beverly Lake Jr. designated John Martin as Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals,” Connell said. “It is telling, and merits emphasis, that his first act in his new role was to procure a long overdue pay raise for the deputy clerks in the clerk’s office and for the print shop staff.”
Under Martin’s leadership, Connell added, the court was expected to provide prompt and reasoned decisions.
“He was constant in reminding all court personnel, including his fellow judges, that the cases belong to the parties, not to the court,” Connell said. “He would say: ‘It is their case, it is their lives, and we owe it to them to get it done right and to get it done fast.’
“The Chief led the effort to cut by nearly one-half the time between the docketing of a case and the issuance of an opinion. He mandated a 90-day limit for opinions to be filed from their calendar date, periodically sending to the entire court a list of cases that had missed the deadline. When a fellow judge explained that the reason for his delay in deciding a case was its complexity, Judge Martin told him, ‘Well, it’s not going to get any easier just sitting there.’ By 2011, the average length of a case’s time in the court dropped from well over a year to under seven months – the fastest resolution rate in its history.”
The record disposition rate, Connell added, was achieved while the court was undergoing an extensive renovation project.
“I lived through this combination,” Connell said, “and I submit this combination is nothing short of amazing. Beginning in 2008, Judge Martin guided the 19-month overhaul of its 1914 courthouse building. The courtroom in which we meet today had been restored to its original grandeur in 1997, thanks largely to the efforts and persistence of Chief Judge Arnold. As important as was that restoration, the rest of the building was in severe need of attention.
“I served on the committee chaired by Judge Martin that was charged with overseeing the project, including the logistical challenge of relocating the Court, its contents and its more than 100 inhabitants. I can tell you that there was no detail – not one – that escaped his attention and no aspect of the finished project that doesn’t have his fingerprints on it.”
Martin is also a devoted family man and friend, Connell said.
“John Martin’s personal life tells the story of a man who has been a role model in every family role he has filled. Let’s start with ‘husband’ because it’s hard to think about him without thinking of Margaret – his steadfast companion for the past 30 years. I have never seen two people more devoted to each other than John and Margaret Martin.”
Their blended family, Connell added, includes five children, their four spouses and fiancé, and nine grandchildren.
“John Martin is as good and true a friend as he is a family man,” Connell said. “And not just in good times. He is the first to visit a sick friend and to comfort a troubled one, no matter how hard or inconvenient it is for him personally. I am certain that I am not the only person whom Judge Martin has helped through a dark chapter with comforting words or sage advice.
“He never forgets a birthday. He practices the lost art of the handwritten letter. He is,
in all the best possible ways, old school.”
John Wester, speaking second, began, “A review of the life and career of Chief Judge John Martin, even at the high altitude John Connell shares it this morning, moves me for the depth of his abiding commitment to serving our profession and our state. As I take in this room, I consider the millions of North Carolina citizens who have never entered this building – and never will, yet they are the direct beneficiaries of John Martin’s service to our state – in this building and beyond.”
“I was gratified to learn with you that when Judge Martin became chief judge of this court, he turned first to securing better wages for the print shop staff, and for the deputy clerks. It is his second nature to recognize those who are essential to assuring the wheels of our judicial system turn on time and to assuring fair treatment to those who turn them.”
Wester recalled serving with Martin on the NCBA’s Judicial Independence Committee.
“From the beginning of our time together, I took in his conviction that our founding fathers put judicial independence in the center of their vision for a new democracy,” Wester said. “Judge Martin holds, and has lived, the conviction that an independent judiciary is not on automatic pilot, especially in a state where we elect judges, and especially when we do so on partisan ballots.
“Central to judicial independence is the command of constant vigilance to protect it. John Martin has lived that vigilance. I have heard from more than one judge whom he counseled with this advice: ‘Yes, you belong to a political party, so do I. But you must leave behind your political ties as you hear every case. We are bound by our oath and our conscience to decide every case – every case – without fear or favor.’ Judge Martin put his example of judicial independence behind what he asked of every judge with whom he served.”
Wester asserts that Judge Martin remained a champion of judicial independence throughout his career, which included service as chair of the North Carolina Judicial Standards Commission and president of the Council of Chief Judges of the State Courts of Appeal. Martin received the NCBA’s highest honor, the John J. Parker Award, in 2013, and was inducted into the Council of Chief Judges of the State Courts of Appeal Hall of Fame in 2021.
“As I reflect on his service and our honoring him today,” Wester said, “the sentiment that returns to me most often is one of Thanksgiving. However fine his portrait – and all of us are grateful for it – when we think of him, however far we are from seeing his face, we can hold onto our thanksgiving for him.”
The portrait was unveiled by Margaret Martin and accepted by the court, after which Chief Judge Martin expressed his appreciation to everyone in attendance. In addition to current and former members of the Court of Appeals, the ceremony was attended by former Chief Judges Arnold, Eagles and Linda McGee.
The portrait was painted by Jamie Lee McMahan of Shelby County, Tenn.
Russell Rawlings is director of external affairs and communications for the North Carolina Bar Association.