Father Martin, leader in addiction treatment, dies

Sulpician Father Joseph C. Martin, a leader in the addiction treatment field who cofounded the Father Martin’s Ashley treatment center, died March 9. He was 84.

“Today, the entire treatment community mourns the loss of an icon,” said Oblate of St. Francis de Sales Father Mark Hushen, president and chief executive officer of Father Martin’s Ashley. “The death of Father Martin marks the end of an era.”

The funeral Mass for Father Martin was to be offered March 13 at 10 a.m. at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Baltimore.

Ordained a priest in 1948, Father Martin began his own recovery from alcoholism in the late 1950s, after a stay at the Guest House, a clergy alcoholism treatment center in Lake Orion, Mich.

Inspired to create a treatment center that focused on the dignity of the person, Father Martin and Mae Abraham, a woman he met in Alcoholics Anonymous, opened Father Martin’s Ashley near Havre de Grace in 1983. Since then, the 85-bed facility has treated more than 40,000 people – body and spirit – and has provided services to their families.

Although Father Martin retired from Father Martin’s Ashley in 2003, he continued to address patients.

Father Hushen praised his philosophy for treatment, that of healing with dignity.

“Alcoholism and drug addiction beats up a person so much that when they come into treatment, they just need care, love and respect to begin to heal,” said Father Hushen.

What makes Father Martin’s work so valuable and meaningful in the treatment community is the way it makes spirituality accessible, said Father Hushen, who is in recovery.

“He was able to take the 12-step spiritual approach to recovery and really make it accessible for so many people, whether they were of Christian belief, or whether they were agnostic, or just spiritually hungry and seeking a relationship with God,” Father Hushen said. “He had a unique way to just break open spirituality and make it accessible.”

Mike Gimbel, who has spent more than 30 years in the field of treating addiction and is currently the director of the antisteroid program Powered By Me at St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson, said Father Martin took the field of addiction treatment to a different level and gave it credibility.

“He probably did more for the field of addiction than anyone other than Bill Wilson, who actually created AA (Alcoholics Anonymous),” said Mr. Gimbel. “The work he did in educating the public about the disease of alcohol addiction moved the field into a whole new level of helping people.”

Mr. Gimbel also admired Father Martin’s inclusion of families in the addiction recovery process to make sure families understood what the addict was going through.

“Up to that point, people would drop off their addict and say, ‘We’ll pick them up in 28 days.’ ”

Calling Father Martin a great priest with a sense of humor, Father Joseph Breighner said Father Martin made an enormous impact.

“I think most importantly he taught us how to minister to others, to turn our pain into compassion, to find God in all things – to find that a higher power was there to see us through dark nights and challenging times,” said Father Breighner, who in 1959 was taught by Father Martin at St. Charles College, Catonsville.

Previous to opening the center, Father Martin had been a leader in the addiction treatment field since the early 1970s, when the U.S. Navy filmed “The Blackboard Talk,” which became known as “The Chalk Talk.”

He made more than 40 motivational films and authored several publications.

Father Martin’s reach extended across the globe.

He participated in the Vatican’s International Conference on Drugs and Alcohol in 1991 at the request of Pope John Paul II. Additionally, he traveled to Russia under the auspices of the International Institute on Alcohol Education and Training, and he spoke to Alcoholics Anonymous groups and addiction counselors in training in Switzerland and Poland.

Father Martin received the Andrew White Medal from Loyola College in Maryland; Rutgers University’s Summer School of Alcohol Studies’ Distinguished Service Award in 1988; and the Norman Vincent Peale Award in 1992.

A Baltimore native, Father Martin graduated from Loyola Blakefield (then Loyola High School) in 1942. He attended Loyola College and studied for the priesthood at St. Mary’s Seminary in Roland Park. After his 1948 ordination, he taught in California (1948-56) and at St. Charles College (1956-59).

He is survived by Mae and Tommy Abraham, with whom he lived for 30-plus years; siblings Dorothy, Frances and Edward; and nieces, nephews and their children.

“Truly, the world is a better place for his having been here,” Father Hushen said.

Words of remembrance may be e-mailed to ashley.marketing@fmashley.com.They will be posted on the Father Martin’s Ashley Web site, www.fathermartinsashley.org.

Donations may be sent to Father Martin’s Ashley treatment center, 800 Tydings Lane, Havre de Grace, MD 21078; or to the Associated Sulpicians of the U.S., 5408 Roland Ave., Baltimore, MD 21210.

Paul McMullen contributed to this article.

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