David Roy Martinez
It is with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of David Roy Martinez on April 2, 2022. He passed from this life exactly as he lived it, surrounded by love from his family and friends.
David was born Jan. 2,1955, and raised in Texas by his loving family, which included his parents, Roy and Carolyn Martinez, and his younger brother, Danny. The family moved from Texas to Santa Maria, CA, in 1961. Several years after the death of Carolyn, Roy remarried to Connie Winslow, and the blended family now included a younger sister, Valiene.
David earned his LVN license in the late ‘70s and began working at Cottage Hospital in the orthopedics unit. His good looks, exuberant personality and outstanding nursing care got him noticed by a physician who had been asked by one of his older patients to help her find a companion who could care for her on an “around the world cruise” on the QE 2. Thus began the trip of a lifetime for David, circumventing the globe for 6 months. It never took much encouragement for him to recall all the wonderful sights he witnessed in Europe, the safari in Africa, the Great Pyramids, the Taj Mahal, or flying home on the Concorde supersonic airplane from Paris to New York.
Upon returning to the US, David began another amazing journey. He completed his ADN nursing degree at Santa Barbara City College while working full time at Cottage Hospital. But he wasn’t done; he also dreamed of becoming a nursing educator. David subsequently received his BSN and MSN from Cal State LA., and in 2007 he began his career on the faculty of Santa Barbara City College in the nursing program, where it all began for him. David was a very well loved and respected educator in the nursing community on campus and in the hospital. One of his most prized accomplishments was starting a Men in Nursing program at SBCC to support male students in a historically female occupation.
After a reintroduction in 2006 by a mutual friend, David began a relationship that had been years in the making with Jeffrey Paaske. In 2014 while in Hawaii, Jeff proposed to David and he finally accepted. David married his love, Jeffrey, on May 5, 2015, in Solvang. Together David and Jeff had a beautiful life and home.
David had a magnetic personality and was the life of any gathering. He had accrued a very large group of friends from New Jersey, Oregon, Denmark and California. Every year he would gather his troops from far and wide for Fiesta, and what a time was had. “What happened at Fiesta stayed at Fiesta.” Unless of course, it was just too good not to talk and laugh about. David’s life was filled with laughter, love and adventure. He was deeply loved and will be greatly missed every day by all his friends and loved ones.
A special thanks to Linda Macias, Micheal Paquette and Suzanne Edick for the tender care given in David’s last year. David is survived by his husband, Jeffrey Paaske, father and step mother Roy and Rosie Martinez, and his sister, Valiene Vannocker, as well as many nieces and nephews. Those who wish to honor David may make a donation to Men in Nursing ( make checks to SNA/MIN c/o SBCC ADN Nursing ,721 Cliff Drive, Santa Barbara, CA 93109).