Harvey Ephriam Martin

HARVEY E. MARTIN After High School Harvey went to work for General Electric as an apprentice draftsman. When WWII broke out he enlisted in the Canadian Navy and was sent to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he worked refitting ships damaged during Atlantic crossings to resupply Britian. His first assignment was to draft plans to refit a civilian ship that had been gutted and donated to the Navy. He found the original plans for the ship hidden onboard and lead a flawless refit of the ship. He then worked as a design engineer for the rest of the war. After VE day he returned to General Electric as a draftsman. Harvey soon aspired to become a mechanical engineer and attended Queens University Engineering School in Kingston, Ontario financed by the Canadian GI bill. With a son already on the ground time became of the essence. Harvey finished his engineering degree in 31/2 years with straight A grades and was named class valedictorian. He keep a small book in which he detailed every class he took. Upon graduation, Harvey returned to General Electric as an engineer. He soon accepted a Project Engineer position with General Motors Diesel (GMD) in London, Ontario where he became a leader in the design and production of diesel locomotives and the replacement of the world's steam locomotives. The locomotives were so well built that when the last of the steam engines were replaced the original diesel locomotives were still serviceable. GMD was forced to turn to building buses. In 1962, Harvey immigrated to the United States and joined the American Coleman Company in Littleton, Colorado as Chief Engineer. Coleman built gigantic snow blowers and heavy duty snow plows used on the high mountain passes and converted early Ford pickup trucks to four wheel drive as the Ford factory only produced two wheel drive models. Harvey soon left Coleman and hired on with Coors where he remained for the rest of his career. Harvey oversaw much of the mechanical systems within the brewery as it grew from a small regional brewery into the giant facility that it is today. When Coors was finished growing the Golden Facility, Harvey moved to Research and Development and managed the pilot or mini brewery. A large part of his job involved product quality control but, Coors was soon working on the development of new products. Harvey and his team were instrumental in the development of new Coors brands including Coors Light. Harvey loved skiing and playing golf. He thought they were perfect sports because when he couldn't golf, he could ski and vice versa. Harvey skied last to celebrate his 86th birthday with his grandson, John, and played his best round of golf of the year in November two days before he was bedridden with cancer. Harvey had no regrets and when he left us he was prepared for the journey.