Amos Martin was a spark plug for St. Paul

For 20 years, Amos Martin helped lead the St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce, bringing disparate organizations together to get things done in St. Paul.

Martin, president and chief staff officer of the chamber from 1967 to 1987, died April 13 in Inver Grove Heights of complications from Alzheimer's disease. The longtime Mendota Heights resident was 87.

Martin weighed in on policy and economic development at a time when the city's landscape was being renewed.

Near his retirement, he was modest about his contributions.

"I haven't accomplished anything by myself; at most, I've been a catalyst who gets people involved," he said.

Martin, a Wisconsin native, trained Navy pilots during World War II. He even flew with former President George H.W. Bush in the Twin Cities area.

By 1950, he earned a bachelor's degree in business and a law degree from the University of North Dakota.

As a chamber official in Grand Forks, he was key in getting the Air Force to build its air base there, instead of in Fargo.

Later, success in Evansville, Ill., and Miami, Fla., led St. Paul city leaders to choose him for its chamber's top job in the 1960s.

Former St. Paul Mayor George Latimer said Martin built bridges between business and government, and between the chamber and labor.

"He had several qualities that made him perfect for representing business, but he was also a community leader," said Latimer, who recalled his modesty.

"He genuinely engaged people," said Latimer. "He listened to people and he engaged with people."

"He wasn't at all political in the partisan sense, and he related to people of every political and social background with ease," said Latimer.

Former state legislator Joe O'Neill, who was the chairman of the chamber the year that Martin retired, gave him major credit for getting the St. Paul Civic Center built, and keeping state high school tournaments in St. Paul.

Martin also helped lead efforts to bring groups together from across the political and economic spectrum to endorse school board candidates.

And he weighed in on proposed development of the city along the Mississippi River.

"There is not a single economic development that he did not have a leadership role in," said O'Neill. "When he left, the chamber was the largest in the Upper Midwest."

Martin was particularly proud of leading an effort to create a joint Chamber of Commerce relationship with San Jose, Costa Rica, increasing trade between the Central American nation and Minnesota, said his daughter, JoanE Bjorklund of Mendota Heights.

His daughter recalled that when she'd walk with her father anywhere, "he was always out there greeting people, strangers and friends."

"You wouldn't know he wasn't born in St. Paul," she said.

His wife of 57 years, Grace, died in 2005.

In addition to JoanE, he is survived by two other daughters, Gail Glover of Buffalo, Minn., and Lynn Larton of Indianapolis; a son, Paul Martin of Spokane, Wash., and eight grandchildren.

Services have been held.