One year ago today we lost Ollie Martin

[Paul Danik]

Greetings,

     It was one year ago today, October 22, 2018, that Ollie Martin passed away. Personally, I had never met Ollie until we started to put the Penton Owners Group together, but from the very beginning of the formation of the POG he was not only a regular fixture, but also a hard worker who always went above and beyond in everything he did. It didn't take long with Ollie's easy going manner to feel like we had known each other for a much longer time, a feeling that I am sure others felt as well.

    I sure do miss visiting with Ollie in his immaculate little shop behind his home. Ollie really enjoyed bringing old Pentons that needed a bit of love back to life and once he had worked his magic on one machine he was on the lookout for another.

    In his earlier days Ollie was quite a rider and racer whom I do believe won a district title or so in Hare-Scrambles. Ollie was also an encyclopedia of knowledge of John Penton, the Penton Motorcycle shop and of course the Penton Sportcycles and the numerous folks from the Amherst area that were associated with motorcycling.

  The link below will take you to Ollie's obituary from a year ago.
https://www.hempelfuneralhome.com/obituary/william-martin

    It is interesting to note that Ollie was from a small town in Pennsylvania and had moved to the Amherst area to work in the shipyards. He once told me about how when there was a narrow pipe in a ship that someone had to crawl through for what ever reason that he was often enlisted to do so as he was one of the smaller shipyard workers.

     A wonderful guy who is very much missed, Ollie Martin.

Paul

[Chuckwoodard]

Hi Paul,

You introduced me to Ollie when I was looking for my 1st Penton.  Ollie had built a 1974 125 Six Day and in February 2017 my nephew and I drove to Amherst to pick it up.  Also on that day we were invited to the John Penton Day celebration, never expecting to meet Mr. Penton.  Like to take this opportunity to thank you for introducing me to Ollie and in large part for helping me get that Penton.  Quite a weekend for some guys from Alabama.

Raymond Woodard

[ALB]

I miss Ollie and his passing was a loss to the POG.

Ollie always had a pleasant smile and a good, positive nature about him. He was always volunteering to pitch in when something needed doing, especially at Mid-Ohio for setting up and taking down our displays.
He and his son, Al, set up the inside of the POG trailer, installing brackets and cabinets to organize and store things. They even posted drawings on the walls of the trailer to help show where everything goes and how to arrange bikes and tie them down.

He was a trustee of the POG and rarely missed a meeting.

[V]

Alan Buehner

[Mike Rosso]

Miss Ollie too. Ollie did a lot of work around the Amherst KTM facility and it was always great to hang out and talk with him, what a perfectionist in everything he did and what a special, great, kind person he was. Miss him.

Mike

[Coto]

What a great guy I had the pleasure of meeting and talking to every year at Mid Ohio