NORTHAMPTON — Roy Martin, a candidate for Northampton mayor 10 times over a 26-year period, died of natural causes last Saturday. He was 81.

Likely best known in the city for running campaigns against all four mayors who have won election to City Hall since the 1990s, Martin could have had a featured role in a television sitcom, says former City Council President Bill Dwight.

“Roy was the very definition of a character,” Dwight said. “Roy made every election interesting.”

If Martin did exist in a fictional environment, for JoElla “Jada” Tarbutton-Springfield, who for the past 10 years built a close friendship with Martin at Walter Salvo House, it would have been like in the 1970s “Sanford and Son” program.

“I was Aunt Esther to Roy’s white Fred Sanford,” Tarbutton-Springfield said. “There was so much love there. The beauty is how opposites could exist.”

But she also called it a complicated relationship that began in 2016 after she began taking Martin to therapy after he had open heart surgery in 2016, and then getting him a cockatiel. She saw his vulneranle side and his pure heart, though that wasn’t how he always presented himself.

“He was stubborn with a capital S, he was always right, and there was never a filter,” she said.

Martin’s political life in Northampton started with a write-in campaign, when incumbent Mary L. Ford was seeking reelection in 1995. Despite the loss, Martin then challenged mayors Clare Higgins, David Narkewicz and, three years ago, current Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra.

Higgins said Martin wanted to be involved and engaged and for the city do the right thing, including for those who are unhoused and those living in poverty. “He wanted his voice to be heard,” Higgins said.

And Martin wasn’t shy about his approach. “He would call me out directly and then I would have to tell him his three minutes were up,” Higgins said.

In nearly daily visits to Pleasant Street Video, when Dwight was employed there, he would talk local politics. Martin also had business card that read “Roy C. Martin. Candidate for Office” for his next campaign, which would save him money. Dwight said he was famous for not spending money on his campaigns.

A graveside service for Martin is being held at St. Mary’s Cemetery in Hoosick Falls, New York, Friday at 1 p.m., with his burial near other family members. A local memorial is being planned at the Salvo House for Dec. 7 at 2 p.m., organized by Tarbutton-Springfield, where she hopes to have photos and videos and lots of shared memories.

In Martin’s first foray for mayor, he said that he would represent the poor people of the city. Four years later, in a campaign that saw Higgins win, Martin listed his address as a recreational vehicle parked in the former Hill and Dale parking lot on King Street. Once he even ran a family values platform, as Dwight put it a “Make America Great Again” before it was a thing, citing his seven marriages and 21 children.

“Basically the people of Northampton gave me a life,” Martin said during one of those campaigns, acknowledging having a drinking problem and being a recovering alcoholic. “What I want to do is to help the people of Northampton. I want to give something back.”

He ran again for mayor, losing out to Sciarra during the city’s most recent mayoral election in 2021. Martin’s time in city politics continued in 2023, when he tried to get a seat as an at-large councilor, expressing concerns over city spending and the planned redesign of Main Street.

“I’ve always kept my hand in the political jar,” Martin said at a candidates forum last fall.

Tarbutton-Springfield said Martin had courage to run again. “He had the chutzpah, at 80 years old, of running for office,” she said. Even while at a nursing home this month, he got out to vote on election day, cussing at staff out of concern he might not get to the polls.

Others are familiar with Martin from his longtime residency at Salvo and his advocacy to the tenants association.

“He was a decent guy. He did favors for people and was a kind person,” said Michael Kaczkowski, who got to know Martin over the past two decades.

Kaczkowski said Martin also stood firm to his ideals. “He was very opinionated and he wouldn’t compromise,” Kaczkowski said, including when Martin pushed for a new Northampton Senior Center to be built at Look Park in Florence, rather than at the edge of downtown.

Others at Salvo House point to Martin, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, caring for the patriotic garden in front of the Conz Street building, with American flags and other objects in red, white and blue displayed, as well as his keeping several cars in the building’s back lot, some under regular repair.

His occupations ranged from fishing to working on an oil rig to running a pet supply business.

“I will be missing him with fondness, I’m genuinely saddened by his passing,” Dwight said.

While Martin never won a city election, Tarbutton-Springfield said she hopes her friend will get overdue recognition in another way.

“He should be remembered as the mayor of Salvo,” Tarbutton-Springfield said.

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com