The following biographical sketch is adapted from
the "News of the Church: Elder Douglas J. Martin of the First Quorum of
the Seventy" published in the Ensign for May 1987 on the occasion
of Elder Martin's five-year call to the First Quorum of the Seventy.
As a young man, Douglas Martin of Hamilton, New Zealand,
was introduced to the gospel of Jesus Christ by an attractive Maori girl,
Amelia Wati Crawford. Her example helped bring him into the Church, and
the dedication of the Maori people he met in the Church helped him learn
what it means to be a Latter-day Saint.
“They showed me the example of total obedience and
faith in the Lord,” he recalls. They had very little in the way of material
goods or education, but learning the gospel and following the Savior were
much more important to these Maori members than obtaining things to make mortal life comfortable.
“I think I learned obedience from those people,”
Elder Martin reflected. “I like to be obedient.”
That is just one of the strengths he brought to his
calling as a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy. Looking at
the men in his new quorum, he says, “I feel the very least of them.” And
yet, whatever strengths and abilities he had to offer were
committed to the service of the Savior, Church leaders, and his quorum.
The calling was stunning. “I literally didn’t sleep
all that night” after receiving it, Elder Martin recalls. “I was overwhelmed.”
And yet the calling was a quite unexpected fulfillment
of a hope. Just two weeks away from retirement as manager of a plastics
molding plant, he was preparing to fill his spare time with some of the
pastimes he enjoys—beekeeping, gardening, fishing, wood-turning, or surfing—if
necessary. But what he and Sister Martin really wanted, after years in
Church leadership positions, was an opportunity for full-time service.
They hoped perhaps to receive a mission call. Now Elder Martin was looking
forward to “for the first time, completely turning my life over to the
Lord.”
In a sense, Elder Martin really took that step many
years ago.
He was born 20 April 1927 in Hastings, Hawkes Bay,
New Zealand. He was a son of George and Jessie Jamieson Craigie Martin.
Already twenty-four years old when he was baptized
in 1951, he nevertheless went on to serve a mission before he and Amelia
were married.
Because there was no temple in New Zealand in 1954,
Douglas and Amelia traveled to Hawaii, in company of a group of older Maori
members, to be married in the temple. The Martins had three living sons:
James, Sydney, and Douglas. (Another son, Craig, drowned in childhood.)
Church service was a way of life for Elder Martin,
Shortly after the New Zealand Temple was dedicated
in 1958, President David O. McKay called him
as a sealer. During the temple’s first four years of operation,
Douglas Martin served as temple recorder. Concurrently, he served as
a bishop.
He later was a counselor to two stake presidents
and served as president of the Hamilton New Zealand Stake for nearly ten
years. He was a patriarch in that stake and was serving as a regional representative
at the time of his call to the First Quorum of
the Seventy.
Elder Martin said his wife has offered steadfast
support for his church service. “She puts the Church first. She has a total
faith” which comes from her Maori heritage, he added.
The Martins had no regrets about giving up their
retirement plans or the vacation home they were finishing. They were looking
forward to the privilege of serving the Lord full-time. Elder Martin commented
that it would be a blessing in his life to associate with the members of
the First Quorum of the Seventy and to feel their great strength.
“I hope that I can justify the confidence that has
been placed in me,” he says, “and I can only do that by staying close to
the Lord.”
Elder Martin served but two years of his five-year call
to the First Quorum of the Seventy before being transferred to the the newly
created Second Quorum of the Seventy on April 1, 1989. He faithfully served
the remainder of his calling in the Second Quorum and was honorably released
October 3, 1992.
