Applicants Sought for Sgt. Marty Martinez Memorial Scholarship
Martinez was an APS police officer who died in a hot air balloon crash in 2021.
At his core, Marty Martinez was a public servant.
The 1977 Valley High graduate served in the Army for 11 years. He also spent 20 years as an Albuquerque Police Department officer. After retiring from APD, he became a resource officer for the Albuquerque Public Schools Police Department and served until his death in 2021.
Martinez, who worked for APS police for 16 years, was one of five people killed when the hot air balloon they were in crashed on the West Side in June of 2021. Determined to keep Martinez’s memory alive, the Educational Police Officers Association has established a scholarship in his name.
The Sgt. Marty Martinez Scholarship aims to help an APS student planning to pursue a career in education or law enforcement. Any APS senior attending college in the fall of 2023 and who is interested in a career in those fields is eligible to apply. The deadline to submit the application and an essay is May 3, 2023.
All five people killed in the balloon crash had connections to APS.
Martinez’s wife, Mary, also died in the crash. Susan Montoya, an assistant principal at Georgia O’Keeffe Elementary, and her husband, John, were also killed in the crash, as was pilot Nick Meleski, who was the father of another APS employee.