Martin Winch (1944-2025)

We learned from Frank MacMurray that our classmate Martin Winch died on November 26, 2025, in Oregon Health & Science University Hospital, in Portland, Oregon, after a battle with mesothelioma.
 
Martin was born in Portland. He graduated from Portsmouth Priory School, in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, where he was editor of both the literary magazine and yearbook, as well as a member of the glee club and cross-country team.
 
At Princeton, he majored in history and wrote a senior thesis titled The Mythical West, 1800-1830. He was president of the Footnotes and participated in the Trenton Tutorial Project. His roommates included Dave MacCarroll, Dick Wile, and Lauson Cashdollar.
 
After graduating, Martin joined VISTA as a volunteer, working with migrant agricultural laborers in Texas. He then moved to Denver, where he earned a law degree in 1971.
 
That same year, he married Carolyn, and the couple moved to Tumalo, Oregon. They had two children, Paula, born in 1972, and Peter, born five years later. Martiin worked for the Tumalo Irrigation District. In the 1980s, he wrote a history of the project, “Tumalo, Thirsty Land,” published in the Oregon Historical Quarterly.
 
Martin and Carolyn created the Deschutes Independent School. Working with the Deschutes Basin Land Trust, he dedicated himself to restoring Whychus Creek. To honor Whychus Creek, he wrote Biography of a Place: Passages Through a Central Oregon Meadow. For more about Martin's work, see A Place in Time.
 
In the 1990s, he served as executive director of Jesuit Volunteer Corps, Northwest, a position he regarded as the most satisfying of his professional life.
 
In September 2023, he was diagnosed with mesothelioma. Through treatment, he was able to live a robust life for another two years, and he was able to provide care for Carloyn in her final year.
 
In the last chapter of his life, he found love and companionship with Patricia Bradley.
 

Martin is survived by his children, Paula and Peter, grandchildren Elo and Ahti, and Carolyn.

 

The Oregonian published Martin's obituary.

From obituary

Nassau Herald

Memories and Tributes

Frank MacMurray:

I am sad to report that classmate Martin Winch died recently after a struggle with mesothelioma. I did not know him at all at Princeton and met him here in Oregon in the mid-70s. He was living in central Oregon when we moved there after the Peace Corps. Our families were pretty close until 1987, we saw less of them after our move to Portland. I saw little of him in the last 10 years. At his funeral he was accurately eulogized as “a good and decent man, who saw special beauty in nature.” That describes him well.

 

From the Deschutes Basin Land Trust web site

 

If you have photos or memories that you wish to share, please send them to the '66 Memorial Team (66_MemorialTeam@tiger1966.org). We will add them to this page.