Martin Edwin Schreiber, the bagpiper of Baton Rouge, has passed from this earth. His pipes are still.
He follows his bride of sixty-six years whom he has longed to see again since her death two years ago. He piped in the New Year for thirty years around his home hear the Garden District until 2009 when he was 89 years old, and while his drones are now silent, his music carries on in the instruments of his many students and experienced pipers and drummers who joined him to make the Baton Rouge Caledonian Pipes and Drums.
Born in Woodburn, Oregon, Martin was raised in the farm communities of the Willamette Valley and in Fresno, CA. He loved things mechanical and electrical and dreamed of becoming a pilot. By chance he would have a private conversation with Amelia Earhart when he was 15 years old while she was preparing for her round -the-world flight in San Luis Obispo. Martin eventually became a glider pilot and would soar in the skies of California, Ghana, and Louisiana. He would marry a beautiful and exciting woman who was herself a pilot and whose mother had been a pilot in the 1920's. Martin enlisted the Army in 1943 and served in Europe as a radioman in the Signal Corps. He landed on Normandy just as Saint-Lô was being taken, and moved forward with George Patton's Third Army to the liberation of Paris, through the Ardennes and the relief of Bastogne, across Germany and the Rhineland to Czechoslovakia. He had seen the famous tank general often and closely enough that when the movie Patton came out in 1970, Martin refused to see it. Finally prodded to do so, he saw it in the new cinema on Plank Road, and then went back to see it again five times in one week. As a devout Christian his whole life, Martin was glad he was never in a position to have to hurt anyone, even in war, though he served bravely and was shot at in the often very exposed situation of setting up radio stations on hilltops that might be seen as a position of advantage or threat by enemy snipers. After WWII he was educated to be an electrical engineer at Oregon State University, and worked in building power stations in Oregon, before helping design electrical systems for the American space effort and the Atlas rockets that would eventually take the first Americans into space. He then worked for Douglas Aircraft on the DC8 and DC9. A chance to work and live in Africa led Martin, his wife Georgine and three minor children to move to Ghana in the late 60's. In 1969 Martin was transferred by Kaiser Aluminum back to Louisiana, which was to become his home for the next 43 years. Here in Baton Rouge he would take up the pipes again, train a number of students in that loud art, and eventually perform up to 200 events per year, in parades, at weddings, funerals, celebrations and memorials typically held at the USS Kidd. It is for these performances that he is most known in Louisiana, but those who knew him personally recognized him most of all for his modesty, kindness, honesty, generosity and humor. His family also knew him for is devout Christian faith and national pride. When Martin's beloved Georgine died in 2012, he moved with his daughter and son-in-law, Ramona and Steven Mayer, to New Mexico where he spent his sunset years admiring the brilliant magenta sunsets over the high desert mountains. From his perch on 6th Avenue he loved to watch through binoculars with a protective the "the Kneeling Nun." He loved the beauty of New Mexico and wanted to explore it more than his years would allow. Martin was a devoted husband and father. In his final weeks in this realm his four children gathered around him from California and Sweden. He was able to see most of his eight grandchildren and two great-great grandchildren before a brief, severe illness pled his final coda. Martin lived a long and good life and the eddies of his love will ripple out through his many friends and beloved family for a long time.
He is survived by four children, Martin Charles Schreiber, Loren Schreiber, Paul Schreiber and Ramona Schreiber Mayer. Grandchildren include Cleo White, Arwen Schreiber, Jeff Syracusa, Andreas Schreiber, Marissa Schreiber, Morgan Schreiber, Jonah Schreiber and Marina Schreiber. Great-grandchildren include Leela Kashyap and Max White.
No service will be held at family's request. Cremation has taken place at Terrazas Crematory.
Arrangements are with Terrazas Funeral Chapels and Crematory "Trusted care for the ones you love" ~ 575-537-0777. To send condolences, visit www.terrazasfuneralchapel.com.