Martin Vincent Rathwell

Jack of all. Master of some. Captain of the navy dart team. Husband. Father. Martin Vincent Rathwell passed away peacefully October 10, 2026, after a long life well-lived.

Marty was born in St. Boniface Manitoba October 30, 1941. Difficult family circumstances meant that Marty moved frequently throughout his young life - staying with uncles and aunts on the farm in Pratt and in the city in Winnipeg and Edmonton with a boarding school or two in the middle. It was never entirely clear if he was the trouble or trouble simply found him easily.

Marty eventually found a home and mentor in Marengo, Saskatchewan when his Uncle Ted Tierny took him in to work on the farm in the 1950s. Uncle Ted was a bachelor farmer with a bent for frugality and brandy, but he would be the critical force to forge a wayward teen into a capable young man. Ted would remain a touchstone and support throughout Marty’s life.

He would find his second home in the form of the Navy in 1963. The Navy would take Marty all over the world but ironically, never on a boat. Sergeant Rathwell served from coast to coast to coast with postings in Alert and Inuvik in the high arctic, Gander, Newfoundland on the Atlantic, Masset, BC on the Pacific – and a few warmer spots in the middle. The postings included Bermuda in 1968 where he would meet another key ingredient in a life well-lived, his wife Cathy.

Cathy came to visit her sister in Bermuda and brother-in-law in the navy. An arranged first date went well enough for a second to be planned – but Marty stood her up. Chagrined, Marty came to a party later that week with hopes of redemption, only to find Cathy with another sailor. He left downhearted, but fate and the wet Bermuda grass intervened. When his car got stuck he went back in and managed to make amends. Just a few weeks later after a flurry of written courtship, Marty arrived unannounced in Ottawa and proposed.

Cathy provided the love and stability that had been missing for years – albeit with some reluctantly required temperance as their children Sharie and Andrew were born.

Out of the Navy and onto civvy street, the 1980s and 1990s were a busy and fulfilling time for Marty as his second career with Philips Medical Systems drew upon his remarkable ability to fix anything from a toaster to an MRI. Those skills and a gift from Uncle Ted helped Marty and Cathy build their own home in Red Deer, Alberta. Marty saw the world again as training courses and work took him to Amsterdam, Paris, Boston and eventually back to Saskatchewan.

After a second full career, Marty “retired” in Regina – but he was not one to be idle. Marty enjoyed several more careers in his retirement, selling Mercedes, working in a garden center and working at Lee Valley in his 80s when Marty and Cathy moved to Victoria, BC in 2022.

Marty shared his gifts with the next generation – transferring skills and knowledge to his son, son-in-law Greg (Garcia) and four grandsons Greg Jr, Marty, Anderson and Alec.

The arc of Marty’s life was long and bent towards an upward trajectory that defied where it began. When he passed away peacefully, just a few weeks shy of 85 years, he had an abundance of all that would have seemed so scarce when he was a young man.

Marty proved that a life well-lived is not set where it begins, but where it goes. Marty went far.

* Not one for sentimentality, Marty has requested no flowers, charitable donations or funeral.