Former Fed executive Upton Scott ‘Jake’ Martin Jr. dies at 102

When Upton Scott "Jake" Martin Jr. got up in the morning, there were hardly enough hours to fit in all he wanted to do.

He devoted at least eight hours to his work as senior vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, where he was in charge of check collections, billing and equipment, money, printing and supplies, as well as data processing and planning.

After handling often billions of dollars, he rolled up his sleeves to volunteer in the Richmond community, where he brought his family in 1939. His civic ethic extended well after his retirement from the bank in 1971.

Mr. Martin, a former leader in groups ranging from the Richmond Commission on Human Relations to the Salvation Army Boys' Clubs, will be honored at a memorial service Saturday at 11 a.m. at Chamberlayne Heights United Methodist Church, 6100 Chamberlayne Road, where he was a member.

He died Tuesday at his Richmond residence at the age of 102.

Before joining his current church, Mr. Martin had served as chairman of the finance and stewardship committees at Barton Heights Methodist Church, where he taught Bible lessons that he often planned while riding his tractor at a farm he owned on the Pamunkey River, near Hanover Courthouse.

For decades, the farm has been used as a church day camp for children and adults and a site for church picnics, youth groups, Boy Scouts and other activities.

He was a longtime shepherd and later Bethlehem citizen in the Richmond Nativity Pageant, which he once chaired.

Mr. Martin was a former executive board member of the Robert E. Lee Council of the Boy Scouts of America.

During the 1960s, he was an executive with the United Givers Fund, now the United Way

He was a former president and chairman of the youth projects committee of the Richmond Kiwanis Club and a former first vice president and director of the forerunner of the Maymont Foundation.

An only child, he earned a teaching certificate at Shepherd College State Normal School in West Virginia before studying accounting at Dunsmore Business College in Staunton. He later graduated from the Rutgers University Stonier School of Banking.

Mr. Martin married Marian Hirst and was working at a bank in his native Shepherdstown, W.Va., when the Great Depression began.

He came to Richmond as chief clerk in the office of the Chief National Bank Examiner and then joined the Federal Reserve in 1942 as a bank examiner, rising to senior vice president in 1969.

His wife died in December 2004.

Survivors include two daughters, Hirst "Jo" Rush of Virginia Beach and Lelia C. "Bess" Frame of Hanover County; two sons, John A. Martin of Fountain Valley, Calif., and Upton S. "Charlie" Martin III of Ashland; and eight grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren and four great-great-grandchildren.