Another giant fell in our little town this month. Phil Martin died. Scarborough High School varsity baseball coach for 33 years, another 10 years before that at Scarborough Junior High. P.E. teacher; husband to wife Pat (think Carol Burnett, low-key version); father to daughter Terrie; and son Jay.

But like many giants, he had an effect far beyond his immediate circle. Throw a rock a pond. The circular waves that come from the plunk keep coming.

Coach Martin was a gentle bear of a guy in the l960s, ’70s and ’80s. He would tell you his greatest accomplishment was coaching the SHS Redskins to a State Class B baseball title in l986. Uh uh. The 1986 title was simply the frosting on a very big, colorful, cake that had him in the youth-development business for about a half century. Good win in ’86, but his effect was cultural, institutional in 04074 territory. Not just one game.

South Paris raised him. The University of Maine at Orono educated. Scarborough got him, though, thank you very much. He and Pat set up shop here in l959.

How am I involved?

I am a knucklehead. Or was.

I gave the eulogy at Phil’s funeral. Two reasons. One, his son and daughter were smart enough to realize they would bawl like babies once they hit minute two, or three; Second is because I stayed in touch with Phil for 35 years. I had a lot of stories about the guy.

Phil was my seventh-grade gym teacher and baseball coach. The first position was his platform to let me know I was going “nowhere fast” in life if I kept on the cute little track I was on age 12, and 13. The latter position was the Velcro that kept us together for 35 years – though I know, now, many times those 9 p.m. chats in Aisle 4 at Hannaford in mid-winter had really nothing to do with baseball. They were about doing good things in life – and trying to reach as many of our fellow 6,000 (then), 15,000, and finally 22,000 fellow citizens in Scarborough as possible.

Phil had a strong sense of right and wrong, and of pompous and humble. He was one of the 10 funniest people I knew. His words and stories were funny. His timing and Vaudevillian Jack-Benny-type delivery were flawless.

He loved kids, and thought they should all play sports. He liked to see boys smiling on and off the ball fields.

He liked politics. I was drafting a brochure once and asked him his philosophy: “I just think we have to help some people who need help.”

The most recent national Democratic Party platform was 448 pages, single-spaced, with another 300-plus pages of attachments. The Phil Martin mantra was 12 words. I like Phil’s.

Eulogies are best when there are stories.

Here are five of my favorite Phil Martin ones.

DOWNTRODDEN – I returned to Scarborough l983 and set up a law firm. He sent an older lady to me as one of my first clients. “She doesn’t understand a word of some insurance document. I told her you probably wouldn’t either, but she should go see you. You wouldn’t make her feel stupid.” Jab/jab/compliment!

HUMILITY – I ran for the Legislature in l984. The day after the announcement was in the paper I got a letter from Phil. “I think most politicians are jerks. I don’t think you are a jerk. Good luck.” A $25 check was in the envelope. I still have the letter. His idea of encouragement, I am sure.

ROLE MODEL – Youth sports interest goes up and down. Some years, registrations in sports are up in 04074 Land, sometimes down. In the mid-l990s, baseball hit the skids one year. A Babe Ruth team he coached forfeited a state game. Let’s do something to encourage the superstars to play, I exhorted. “You have it wrong,” he said. “It is the end of the bench guys we need to make nine.” We established an award in 1996 to recognize “Tenth Player Award” types at the Middle School: The Philip T. Martin Youth Baseball Award. This summer, we will honor our 100th kid.

CHURCH – In Junior High, a classmate who was an altar boy came to school breathlessly one Monday morning and reported: “Coach Martin was in church! And he took confession!” I asked the coach why he went to church. He said, “It’s quiet. I make my lineup out there.”

BASKETBALL – He was known as a “baseball guy;” he had a fungo bat in his P.E. office by his chair. He would grip it as he talked with you. Then I heard he was an assistant high school basketball coach. Why that sport too, I asked? “There is no snow in the gym in the winter,” he offered. “And it’s warm.”

The family is setting up a scholarship through Saco Biddeford Savings Institution, PO Box 1468, to honor Phil, and help a deserving SHS senior who plays baseball. The criteria comprise quotes from Coach Martin:

The kid will be required to show he has been a “good teammate and not a jerk;” who could “use a little help financially;” and – perhaps most of all – “remembers to smile when he is on a baseball field.”

Good job, Phil.

The coach will keep skipping rocks in the pond.

Dan Warren is a Scarborough lawyer who can be reached by Facebook private message to Jones & Warren Attorneys at Law, or by email at jonesandwarren@gmail.com.