- May 20, 2004
- 1,721
- 152
- Detector(s) used
- Minelab Excal 1000
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
BUCYRUS — The woman killed in Sunday’s plane crash in Bucyrus was known as a loving parent, a community-minded person and someone who was passionate about the field of nautical archaeology.
Lillian Ray Martin, 45, had earned a master’s degree in Nautical Archeology from Texas A & M University, participated in recovering the Bronze Age shipwreck at Ululburun, Turkey, and authored “The Art and Archaeology of Venetian Ships and Boats.”
News of Sunday’s accident shocked Martin’s colleague and friend Cemal Pulak, TAMU associate professor of anthropology and vice president of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology.
He recalled the last time she visited the TAMU campus, which was 10 days ago.
“She had just visited with her son, who was working on a term project on the (Ululburun) shipwreck,” Pulak said. “I was surprised to hear he was familiar with the work and he had a very nice set of intelligent questions to ask me. Afterwards, we made agreements to try and work together again in the future.”
Martin worked with Pulak in the final two years of the Ululburun project, where she helped recover artifacts and took photographs of the wreckage.
The Ululburun project ran from 1984 to 1994.
“She was very enthusiastic,” Pulak said. “I admired her tenacity, work ethic and energy. She would dive twice a day, into water 150 to 200 feet deep, six days a week. It was physically demanding work but she always did it with the broadest smile on her face.”
William Martin was the owner of T.F.C. Info, a marketing firm in Austin, Texas, and in Maine. He was also the editor of a newsletter for the firm.
The Martins owned and flew a Piper PA-24 Comanche 260 aircraft, which was about 30 to 35 years old.
Kevin Detray of the Bucyrus City Airport and owner of Detray Aviation, said the aircraft has an excellent safety record.
“There are a lot of Piper 260s flying around now,” Detray said.
According to Detray, Martin never spoke to anyone at the Bucyrus Airport or the controllers at Mansfield’s Lahm Airport.
“It’s difficult to speculate,” Detray added, “but this is not consistent with a controlled flight into terrain.”
News of the accident was just getting around to the residents of Searsmont, Maine, Town Clerk Kathy Hoey said.
The Martins owned property in the rural town of 1,400 people.
Hoey said the family was known in the small town and they had refurbished a historic barn, where they hosted the town’s Heritage Day celebration.
“Their children were very bright,” Hoey said of 11-year-old Shawn Martin and 10-year-old Kitanna Martin. “I was the town librarian and they would come to the library for the summer reading program. They were very bright, intelligent, beautiful children.”
Lillian Ray Martin, 45, had earned a master’s degree in Nautical Archeology from Texas A & M University, participated in recovering the Bronze Age shipwreck at Ululburun, Turkey, and authored “The Art and Archaeology of Venetian Ships and Boats.”
News of Sunday’s accident shocked Martin’s colleague and friend Cemal Pulak, TAMU associate professor of anthropology and vice president of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology.
He recalled the last time she visited the TAMU campus, which was 10 days ago.
“She had just visited with her son, who was working on a term project on the (Ululburun) shipwreck,” Pulak said. “I was surprised to hear he was familiar with the work and he had a very nice set of intelligent questions to ask me. Afterwards, we made agreements to try and work together again in the future.”
Martin worked with Pulak in the final two years of the Ululburun project, where she helped recover artifacts and took photographs of the wreckage.
The Ululburun project ran from 1984 to 1994.
“She was very enthusiastic,” Pulak said. “I admired her tenacity, work ethic and energy. She would dive twice a day, into water 150 to 200 feet deep, six days a week. It was physically demanding work but she always did it with the broadest smile on her face.”
William Martin was the owner of T.F.C. Info, a marketing firm in Austin, Texas, and in Maine. He was also the editor of a newsletter for the firm.
The Martins owned and flew a Piper PA-24 Comanche 260 aircraft, which was about 30 to 35 years old.
Kevin Detray of the Bucyrus City Airport and owner of Detray Aviation, said the aircraft has an excellent safety record.
“There are a lot of Piper 260s flying around now,” Detray said.
According to Detray, Martin never spoke to anyone at the Bucyrus Airport or the controllers at Mansfield’s Lahm Airport.
“It’s difficult to speculate,” Detray added, “but this is not consistent with a controlled flight into terrain.”
News of the accident was just getting around to the residents of Searsmont, Maine, Town Clerk Kathy Hoey said.
The Martins owned property in the rural town of 1,400 people.
Hoey said the family was known in the small town and they had refurbished a historic barn, where they hosted the town’s Heritage Day celebration.
“Their children were very bright,” Hoey said of 11-year-old Shawn Martin and 10-year-old Kitanna Martin. “I was the town librarian and they would come to the library for the summer reading program. They were very bright, intelligent, beautiful children.”
