Martin Eugene Cummings (1945 – 2023)

Photo from the Nassau Herald

 

The class has received news of Marty's recent death at his home in North Bennington, VT. Marty entered with the class of '67, but, along with about 20 others, was offered sophomore standing on the basis of advanced placement tests and his secondary school record at Niskayuna High School (Niskayuna, NY, near Schenectady). At Princeton, Marty majored in History and was a member of Wilson Lodge. He was active in the Outing Club, and the Daily Princetonian archives contain numerous mentions of him arranging Outing Club events. The following is from Marty's obituary.

 

"Martin (Marty) Cummings, 77, passed away at home on July 17, 2023, after a brief illness. He was born November 14, 1945, in Schenectady, NY to the late Maynard Cummings and Helen O'Connell. After spending most of his childhood in the Midwest, he returned to the Northeast and attended Niskayuna High School [in Niskayuna, NY, near Schenectady]. Marty graduated from Princeton University at the age of 20 with a major in history and received his master's degree in urban and environmental planning from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He worked for the NY State Department of Public Service for the majority of his career, conducting environmental analyses of gas pipeline and power plant projects. Marty moved from Chatham, NY to Vermont in 1998. He married his wife Gail Mauricette in 2004, and together they created a loving blended family. Their lives were full of adventures. They loved to travel -Alaska, Hawaii, Galapagos Islands, and Montana to name a few trips. But they always returned to their favorite places Sanibel Island and their beloved St. John in the US Virgin Islands. Together they backpacked, hiked, and kayaked throughout the White Mountains, the Adirondacks, and Vermont. Marty was a man of many talents-rock climbing, caving, woodworking, telemark skiing, and painting. He was a kind and caring person with a wonderful sense of humor, and a master of puns. His family meant everything to him. In addition to his wife, he is survived by his son Daniel Cummings, stepchildren Stephanie Mulligan (Eamon), Jason Dolmetsch (Alexina Jones), and four grandchildren: Lena and Thomas Dolmetsch, and Liam and Nora Mulligan. A celebration of Marty's life will take place in the fall. Memorial contributions can be made to VNA/Hospice of the Southwest Region, 7 Albert Cree Drive, Rutland, VT 05701."

 

From the Nassau Herald

Please note that there are typographical errors in Marty's name and the high school name.

Tributes

Clayton Lewis '67

I remember Marty very well. He and I were both faux 66ers, who entered with 67. 50 years or so on I realized that nearly all my friendships were with 67 people, and changed my class affiliation. Marty did not make the change. 
 
During the pandemic some of us organized a kind of virtual mini-reunion, and I talked with Marty about it, but this is the report I passed along to the participants in 2020:
 
re Cummings: sadly, he says his memory is failing, and he may not be able to participate. He's retired from a career in environmental affairs for the state of New York; now living in Bennington, VT... has a son who is a Latin teacher in NJ, and step daughter who is an accountant in VT.
 
The room draw list is kind of accurate: the occupants of a suite in 1937 Hall were Marty; yours truly; Robert Calvin Gordon III, who went on to become 67's first corporation president, taking that role in the famous New Buffalo Commune, in Arroyo Hondo, NM;  James C Thompson, Joe Mott (copied... he certainly does exist!) , and Steve Kerr. James B Williams Jr may have dropped out before we took up residence. I don't remember Royal Masset living in the suite, but Marty did know him from an earlier year. Masset is infamous in my book for playing a substantial, and acknowledged, role in turning Texas from blue to red as revenge for the Daley cops beating the demonstrators at the 68 convention. Masset was there, and took a vow, that he kept. So I may have blocked him out from my memory. He did several other foolish but less consequential things... really a remarkable character.
 
I'd say Mott was the one of us who knew Marty best (I think they may have roomed together before), and am copying him on this, so that he can add his response for you.
 
Marty majored in either poli sci or history, and as I recall did his thesis on the Know Nothing party, about which he became very knowledgeable. 
 
I remember him as being a lovely person, but a little shyer and less gregarious than the typical crazy person in our set, so he and we were less in touch over the years than some of the others.
 

PS: Thinking of Marty makes me think of another faux 66er, Antony Papert. He left after our first year to transfer to Columbia; Princeton was too rural for him. At Columbia he was the principal in a successful effort to hijack a class at Barnard, in which he appeared as Professor Billshot.  In that role he gave a couple of lectures, before bad luck led to the deception being exposed. He went on to have a career tutoring Latin and being a leading Rouchey; when I last spoke to him in about 2015 he was still active as the latter. If the class feels it would be enriched by having a notice of Tony I would be happy to draft something (though AFAIK he is still living, so you may not need one yet.)

 

Steve Kerr '67

I was actually not rooming in that 1937 suite that Clayton mentions -- I had a single in 1939, but hung out so much in that 1937 suite that I might as well have lived there.
 
Marty was often a quiet guy, but had a knack of adding a quick comment into conversations that could subtly redirect them or reveal some novel aspect of the subject under discussion.  He was a  regular participant in late-evening snack runs to Veidt's (a long-since closed restaurant on Nassau Street), and joined gamely in our off-key cross-campus renditions of "Rule Britannia," "We're All Going Calling on the Kaiser," and "Die Wacht am Rhein."  Most of us had some Marvel Comics character drawn on our beer jackets, but I can't recall what his was.
 
Jim Thompson lives on Mainland, Orkney, in Scotland, and I'll cc him here as he may have more illuminating (or at least different) memories.

 

Joe Mott '69

Martin Eugene Joseph Cummings (“Marty”) came to Princeton from Niskayuna High School in Schenectady with the Class of ’67. Freshman year he roomed in Jolene Hall with ‘67ers Nick Adamson, Royal Masset and Joe Mott (who graduated ’69). The next year, with advanced standing status as a junior, he scored a prime suite in Holder with Masset and Mott, followed by one of the large suites in 1938 hall in the “New Quad” with ‘67ers Mott, Rob Gordon, James Thompson, Clayton Lewis, and Steve Kerr. Ed Slaughter, Carl Schultz and Tim and Tom Tulenko camped out there regularly. Most of the group took meals at the Woodrow Wilson Society. Marty was fun-loving and mischievous, and an enthusiastic member of the rock-climbing contingent of the Outdoor Club. During Freshman Week, fueled by vodka procured by the well-connected Adamson, Marty led a merry band, geared up and helmeted, on a midnight climbing excursion atop the construction cranes building the New New Quad. I lost touch with Marty after his graduation.

 

Joe adds that Marty had additional education, receiving a Graduate Certificate in his professional field of Regulatory Economics at the State University of New York at Albany.

 

Gail Mauricette (Marty's wife)

Gail has a remembrance of Marty climbing the Princeton Revolutionary War Memorial and then being trapped aloft because a police officer set up below him to give out traffic tickets.

Additional Photos

From this obituary

 

From his wife Gail's Facebook Page

 

From Gail

 

Contact us directly at the address below if you would like to be informed when the celebration of life information is available, or check this page for updates. Condolences, memories, tributes, and pictures may also be shared on this memorial page by emailing to 66_MemorialTeam@tiger1966.org.