History

Fred Martin is a product of two generations of skaters. As best as can be determined, his grandfather, Fred Brown, was an avid skater on the ponds and rivers of the Michigan countryside about the turn of the century -- the previous one that is. Fred Brown passed on his love of skating to his daughter (Fred's mother), Laura Jane Brown. Now, Laura Brown, Laura Jane's mother and Fred Martin's grandmother, worked just up the block at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit as the Red Wing's nurse. (As far as we know, she had never had any medical training, though she took many a stitch in the faces of those helmetless players.)

In the late '20s there was a group of fancy skaters—that's what they called figure skaters back then—at the Olympia Stadium that had founded the Olympia Skating Club. Laur'jane (Laura Jane) who was often seen hanging around the Olympia with her mom, Laura Brown, soon became a little mascot to the Skating Club and was invited to skate with them. Laur'jane went on to skate and compete for the Olympia Club, the predecessor of the Detroit Skating Club. Through skating, Laur'jane met Harry Martin who became her ice and roller partner, then husband. Fred's mother and father, Harry and Laura (Brown) Martin competed as amateurs in singles, pairs and dance and later as professionals establishing a sort of dynasty of figure skating. Fred and his wife Laurie also met on ice and competed for the Detroit Skating Club. Fred began coaching in 1973 and joined the staff at DSC in 1977, and by far his greatest success with a student was with his daughter Eve Wrest who also taught at the Club for a period of time. All this is sort of a round about way of saying to you that Fred's been around skating for one heck of a long time and probably has skating in his DNA.

Having watched for many years as his father sharpened skates on a drill press in his basement, Fred started sharpening in about 1967. Since that time he has crafted his trade to such a degree that he has been asked to sharpen in places around much of the World for local, national, world and Olympic champions.

Todd Eldredge