An 80-year-old West Virginia snake researcher and Vietnam War veteran died earlier this month after he was bit by a rattlesnake, according to his family.
William H. “Marty” Martin was bitten by a timber rattlesnake on his property in Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, on August 2 and died the next day. He was known as one of the top experts on eastern timber rattlers, a subject he had studied for decades.
According to fellow researchers, Martin was still active in the field and going on expeditions into remote areas to find and document snake populations up until he died from the bite of a captive snake.
“He was a larger-than-life character,” said Joe Villari, manager of the Bull Run Mountains Natural Area Preserve. “He absolutely loved to bring anyone into his world: naturalists, other herpetologists, interested hikers. He was one of a kind.”
Villari would go on hikes with Martin throughout northern Virginia, and he described the naturalist as still in good condition. “He was in his 80s, and he was hard to keep up with,” he said, according to the Associated Press.
Martin, who was called “the ambassador of rattlesnakes” in a profile by Terrain, was also a paratrooper during the Vietnam War with the 101st Airborne Division. He later earned a degree in biology from the University of South Florida with the help of the G.I. Bill.
Recently, Martin had released “The Timber Rattlesnake: Life History, Distribution, Status, and Conservation Action Plan,” a book he co-wrote, in 2021. He was remembered for his education efforts about rattlesnakes, including their role in American history as he would point to the famous Gadsden flag, which featured a snake and the words “Don’t Tread On Me.”
Throughout his career, he would study poisonous snakes around the world in Asia, Africa, and South America. He even consulted with Australia’s famed “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin for an episode on eastern timber rattlers.
Helping start the Virginia Herpetological Society at 17, he was long fascinated by snakes, telling Terrain that it was his father who helped perk his interest in snakes.
“My father introduced me to a lot of different subjects — rattlesnakes was one,” he said. “I was about one and a half years old. He took me out and taught me how to catch non-venomous snakes at two and a half. I didn’t catch rattlesnakes on my own until I was 14, because we didn’t live within walking distance of where they were.”
He is survived by his wife, two daughters and and two stepdaughters.