Obituaries

Gordon Louis Martz

Gordon Louis Martz was born in Chicago, Illinois February 20, 1924, the son of the late Albert and Marie Gins Martz. He was drafted in 1943 for WWII and spent basic training in Atlantic City, New Jersey, transferred to City College in New York City in the Army Specialized Training program to be a civil engineer, then transferred to Mitchel Field Headquarters First Air Force as a draftsman Buck Sergeant. After discharge in 1946 he attended Elmhurst College for a year to prepare for his transfer to Alfred University New York State College of Ceramic Design in 1948. At Alfred he met and later married classmate Jane Marshall of Veedersburg, Indiana in June 1950 and he graduated cum laude from Alfred in 1951. The couple decided to locate in Veedersburg, Indiana in 1951 where Jane's parents, Nicholas and Grace Marshall, owned Marshall Studios, Inc., a handmade lampshade business that Jane's grandmother Jessie (Talbot) Marshall began in 1922. After college from Alfred the couple expanded the family business with clay and wood by adding ceramic lamps, tile top tables, and ceramic accessories. In the 1960s weaving and basket shades were incorporated into the line for variety and eventually 12,000 lamps and lampshades were produced yearly. Gordon Martz's "teardrop" lamp (M101) was recognized by Edgar Kaufmann Jr., Museum of Modern Art's Good Design curator for the 1953 Good Design Exhibition, and given a "Good Design" award from MoMa. Marshall Studio's products were sold nationally and received other "Good Design" awards in the 1950s from MoMa, which also has some of the work in its permanent collection and The American Craftsman Show Museum. Their lamps were displayed in many U.S. foreign embassies through the State Department and General Services Administration contracts in the 1960s-80s. Gordon and Jane Martz sold Marshall Studios in 1989 and they retired to Fayetteville, Arkansas. Mr. Martz continued working in clay at his retirement home at Butterfield Trail Village in Fayetteville, Arkansas making ceramic sculpture, teaching the retirees and Alzheimer's residents' clay, and entering juried shows locally and nationally. He belonged to the Artists of Northwest Arkansas which is associated with the Arts Center of the Ozarks, was nominated for the 2009 Arkansas Living Treasure, and in 2004 was one of three outstanding potters of Indiana acknowledged by the Indiana State Museum. He enjoyed his adopted state of Arkansas (the landscape and mountains of the Ozarks) and shared his love of nature, animals, art and people with his many friends and family. Surviving family include two daughters, Ann Martz (son-in-law Peter Charles) of Baltimore, Maryland; Jennifer (John) Vanbrunt of West Fork, Arkansas; friend Dorothy Reed of Fayetteville, Arkansas; niece Pamela Martz and nephew Cameron Martz both of Antioch, Illinois; a granddaughter Jessica (Dustin) Hilary and two great-grandchildren of Bristol, Indiana. He was preceded in death by his wife Jane Marshall Martz on February 22, 2007 and a brother Robert Martz on May 30, 2014. Moore's Chapel of Fayetteville, Arkansas is handling the cremation. A memorial service will be held at 10:00 a.m., Saturday, December 5, 2015 at Butterfield Trail Village Convocation Room. To sign the online guest book, visit www.mooresfuneralchapel.com.

Published December 2, 2015

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