Donate
Image of MM3c Martin Donald Torrey

MM3c Martin Donald Torrey

PO3/MM3c

Date of birth 06/26/1923
Date of passing 01/08/2024

Martin Donald Torrey passed away peacefully on January 8, 2024, in San Diego, CA. He was 100 years old.

Born on June 26, 1923, in Porterville, CA, to Hazel Vera (Houck) and Tevis Max Torrey, Martin was the second oldest of four children. The Torrey family moved often in the 1920’s and 30’s up and down California’s Central Valley. He graduated from Central Point High School in Central Point, OR, in 1941, where he was an all-star baseball player. Athletic, smart and personable, Martin easily made friends.

Martin was always a top student and, prior to moving to Oregon, he was a member of California Boys’ State, travelling to Sacramento to the June 23, 1940 convention, and had secured a place at the University of California at Berkeley. Sadly he and his older brother were required to help their father on the farm in Oregon, so attending Berkeley was no longer possible.

In June 1943, Martin enlisted in the Navy, and served in the 4th Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (SeaBees) in the Pacific Theater until the end of WWII. He was discharged as a Machinist’s Mate 3rd Class (CB) in November 1945 after being deployed in Hawaii, Guam, Tinian, and Okinawa.

After the war, he returned to Oregon, attended the University of Oregon and obtained a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics in 1951. There he met Carole Jean Waldrip. They were married on April 2, 1953, in San Rafael, CA. Martin applied to Los Alamos National Laboratory, which had been recruiting at the U of O.

They lived in Los Alamos from the Fall of 1953 until 1961 and were blessed during that time with three children: Ted, Jack and Marti. In 1961, with an urge to earn a more competitive salary in private industry, Martin and Carole moved to Indiatlantic, FL, where Martin worked for a private contractor on Patrick Air Force Base. After a year in Florida, the family moved to Concord, MA, where Martin worked for Technical Operations, Inc.

After four years and the birth of one more child (Kelly), Martin and Carole moved back to Los Alamos in 1966. Shortly after moving back to Los Alamos, they purchased the house on 45th Street, with the big green lawn and large ash trees, which Martin single-handedly nurtured until he was 98. He was a homebody who loved yardwork, home repair/construction, and walking outdoors, but he loved working at LANL and being a productive part of his group more than almost anything.

He retired from LANL in 1986, only to spend the next 31 years continuing the same work first as a contractor, then again as a LANL employee, and finally as a visiting scientist, until he was forced to truly retire at the end of 2017 after two bouts with pneumonia.

In January 2022 he moved to an assisted living facility in San Diego near his daughter, Kelly. Martin spent two great years in San Diego where the staff and residents of Belmont Village in Sabre Springs loved and cared for him, and family visited often.

Martin was a great father and loved his family. He died peacefully in his bed, having had one last bowl of ice cream.

He is survived by his four children: Ted Torrey (Min-Ling), Marti Norman (Bruce), Jack Torrey, and Kelly Pearl (Jeremy); eight grandchildren: Caroline, Martin, Jacob, and Melissa Torrey, Carmen and Torrey Hill, and Naomi and Noah Pearl; and one great-grandchild: James Barto. Martin is also survived by his older brother, Richard Torrey of Medford, OR.

Link to obituary

If you would like to share an obituary of a loved one to be listed here, please contact the Navy Seabee Foundation at info@seabee.org.