By Bob Goldsborough and Special to the Tribune

Chicago Tribune

A journalist and author, Paul W. Martin traveled widely and enjoyed profiling some of his more unusual destinations in articles that appeared in the Chicago Tribune's Sunday Magazine and Travel section.

Mr. Martin also chronicled the works of educators like Marva Collins and the Hadley School for the Blind's Richard Kinney in the Tribune's Sunday Magazine.

In his later years, Mr. Martin wrote for publications like Christian Century and the Lions Clubs International's monthly periodical The Lion. In 1991, he detailed the history of the Lions Clubs in a book he wrote, and in the last year, he updated that history in a new book.

A former longtime resident of Riverside, Mr. Martin, 87, died Sunday, Oct. 25, in a La Grange Park retirement community after a long battle with lung cancer.

Born Paul William Pannkoke in Milwaukee, Mr. Martin grew up in Oak Park. He attended Emory University in Atlanta but enlisted in the Navy's flight program before graduating. During World War II, he went on reconnaissance missions by catapulting in observation planes off battleships, said his brother, Ted Pannkoke.

Before the war, Mr. Martin had boxed under the name Paul Martin, and after the war, he wrestled professionally, also under the shorter moniker, which he later made permanent, his brother said.

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, he worked in Greenland, Iceland and Alaska on the United States' anti-Soviet Distant Early Warning Line system of radar stations, performing construction work and managing an airport in Alaska, his brother said.

Mr. Martin eventually ended up a freelance writer, largely teaching himself the craft, his brother said. In the 1970s and 1980s, he wrote several pieces for the Tribune's Sunday Magazine, including a 1978 profile of Collins, whose work at Chicago's Westside Prep High School eventually earned her national attention. "Encouraging, prodding, cajoling, joking and inspiring, (Collins) exhorts the youngsters to sit up straight, speak up, look people in the eye, and pay attention," Mr. Martin wrote.

In 1979, he wrote a Sunday Magazine article about scientists' negative impact on the Galapagos Islands.

A longtime Lions Club member, Mr. Martin in 1991 wrote a 324-page book detailing the history of Lions Clubs International, called "We Serve: A History of the Lions Clubs." In doing research for the book, he interviewed Jim Cameron, a past Lions Clubs International director.

"He dug up a whole bunch of stuff that no one else knew about," Cameron said.

In recent years, Mr. Martin was commissioned to work with co-author Robert Kleinfelder on a 383-page update of the book, titled "Lions Clubs in the 21st Century," published in December.

Mr. Martin lived in Riverside from 1966 to January, when he moved to Bethlehem Woods Retirement Community in La Grange Park.

Besides his brother, he is survived by two nephews.

Services have been held.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2009-11-04-0911030590-story.html

Paul William Martin (1922)