Andy Martinez, 82, of Pullman, WA, passed away peacefully on January 25, 2015 at Avalon Care Center with family members at his side. Andy, a 16 year resident of Pullman, was born in San Diego, CA, on August 2, 1932 to Philippe and Josephine Martinez. He attended elementary and middle schools in the San Diego area until his family moved to Selma, CA in 1946. He graduated from Selma High School in 1950 and entered the US Air Force during the Korean Conflict in 1951. During his five-year tour of duty Andy was stationed in Georgia, French Morocco, and then in West Berlin, Germany, where he served as a cryptographer for the Allied and US Air Force Intelligence Divisions while stationed at Tempelhof Airbase in West Berlin. In 1954, during his tour of duty in West Berlin he met his wife to be for 59 years, Inge (Kitty).

Right before his honorable discharge from the USAF, Andy and Kitty were married in Kaiserslautern, West Germany. Because of his love for the city he was born and raised in, Andy moved himself and his new wife to San Diego in 1956. Shortly afterwards, their son, Steven was born in early 1957. In the 1960's Andy worked in San Diego as an aerospace engineer for Convair, then General Dynamics (helping to design the Atlas missile taking the original Mercury Astronauts into orbit), followed by working as a structural engineer at Atkinson and Associates Structural Engineering in La Jolla, and then back into aerospace engineering at San Diego Aircraft Engineering. In 1970 Andy made the bold decision to go back to college full time while also working full time to obtain his teaching credentials to become a high school industrial arts and mathematics teacher. He graduated from San Diego State University in 1973 (becoming the first person in his family to ever graduate with a higher education degree). He was employed by the San Diego Unified School District from 1973-1998 and held teaching positions at San Diego High School, Mission Bay High School, Mira Mesa High School, and finally Mark Twain High School. Andy retired from the School District in 1998. In 1999, Andy and Kitty left San Diego and moved to Pullman, WA to be closer to their son, daughter-in-law Michelle, and their two granddaughters, Krista and Stephanie.

Andy loved the outdoors. He was a volunteer in Boy Scouts and Explorers and accompanied his son Steve on many backpacking trips in the San Diego, San Bernardino County mountains and deserts, and many Sierra Treks on the John Muir Trail in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. He also loved deep sea fishing, skin diving for abalone, and was an avid alpine skier after learning how to ski at the age of 45. Andy was also an avid private pilot and started to build an experimental aircraft in San Diego and later moved his project to Lewiston, ID after the move to Pullman. In Pullman, he was an active member of the local VFW post, the Lewiston chapter of the Experimental Aircraft Association, Pullman Bowling Leagues, loved being in the stands at WSU Cougar football and basketball games, and was an active participant and loving grandfather to his two granddaughters.

Andy was a wonderful person; happy and always joking. He was a dedicated, unselfish, and loving husband, father, and grandfather who would do anything for his family. He was also a loyal and true friend to those he worked and played with. Everyone he touched was always positively impacted by his kindness and altruistic demeanor. In his neighborhood in Pullman he was recently remembered as "…a great walking and conversation over the fence guy. I believe that a life well-loved is a life well lived. Andy falls in that category…" He will be dearly missed from our lives.

Andy is preceded in death by his father Philippe Martinez and Josephine Martinez (Cota), his uncles Stanley Cota, Albert Cota, and Henry (Hank) Cota. He is survived by his dear and loving wife Inge (Kitty) Martinez of Pullman, his son Steven and his wife Michelle Martinez of Pullman, his two granddaughters; Krista Wiens of Seattle, WA, and Stephanie Martinez of Winnipeg, Manitoba, and his great-grandson, Lev Noam Wiens of Seattle.

Memorial services will be held at 1:00 p.m. on Thursday January 29, 2015 at Kimball Funeral Home in Pullman. Memorial contributions in Andy's honor are suggested to the Cure Alzheimer's Fund (www.curealz.org) or the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research (www.michaeljfox.org). Kimball Funeral Home & Crematory has been entrusted with funeral arrangements.