James Dwayne Martin, former Baptist pastor, denominational worker and church fund-raiser, died May 19 in Pittsburg. He was 75. He was born in rural Coryell County on Jan. 14, 1944, to James Emory and Ruth Jeffries Martin. He attended schools in Gatesville through the tenth grade. After his parents’ deaths, he moved to Texas City to live with his older brother and sisters, and he graduated from Texas City High School. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Howard Payne University, where he later served on the board of trustees and was awarded an honorary doctorate. He earned a Master of Divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He was ordained to the gospel ministry at King Baptist Church. He worked at the State School of Boys in Gatesville as an elementary schoolteacher and caseworker, and he was a vocational rehabilitation counselor for the State Commission for the Blind in Waco. He married Bette McCall Roeder on Feb. 3, 1973. Martin was pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Vernon, First Baptist Church in Sweetwater and First Baptist Church in Texas City. He was director of the Human Welfare Coordinating Board of the Baptist General Convention of Texas from 1984 until 1994, when he became executive director of North Dallas Shared Ministries. For 10 years, he was vice president of Resource Services Inc., a Dallas-based company focused on churches’ stewardship and fund-raising needs. Later, he held a related position as executive consultant with O’Meara Ferguson. He was preceded in death by sons Jeff and Scott Martin, brother Gayle Martin, and sisters Irene Ford and Mary McCloy. He is survived by a sister, Verna Martin Peterson of Houston; Bette Miller, mother of their sons, and her husband, Paul, of Pittsburg.
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