John Martin grew up and attended high school in Pleasant Hill, CA and raised his four children, Liz, Ben, Sarah and Andrew, in Half Moon Bay, CA. His kids and eight grandchildren were the light of his life, and he was always very close to his two sisters, Sandie Pederson and Annie Holter, and their families. 

John loved to buy nice jewelry for his mother. She was always quick to tell everyone about the time he took her to the World Series, something he also did with his oldest son, even though he wasn't much of a baseball fan himself. His joy came from spending time with his family.

While he served in the military in the 1960s, he avoided being deployed to Vietnam because his unit commander wanted him to keep running the mess at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, for which he was awarded mutiple commendations. He loved cooking without a cookbook and passed family recipes on to his kids. 

Other than his military service, he lived his whole life in California, and passed peacefully at home surrounded by his four children.