John Martinez
John Martinez
04 May 1948 - 07 Oct 2020
Clubs & Associations
Finest City Squares
Ocean Squares
Quick Facts
Partner of Steven van Keuren
Medallion Dancer
2006 | 10 Year Medallion at Wish Upon A Thar
Remembrances
We were introduced at a Dignity Convention in Philadelphia in 1981 by Don St. Jean from Toronto, John's ex. John moved from New Jersey to San Diego to join me. We started square dancing in 1992 with Finest City Squares in San Diego, and in 1996 started Ocean Squares in Carlsbad, which we ran for fourteen years until 2010. That year, John was diagnosed with Alzheimers in June, which progressed slowly, so that we had ten more wonderful years together, and were able to travel, sing in choruses, take part in our parish, and square dance. I was very blessed to be able to take care of John at home right up to the end on Oct. 7, 2020, with the help of housemates and caregivers. We had a memorial service on July 1, 2021, and with eight friends I scattered his ashes on Oct. 8, 2021, at mountaintop Wildwood Retreat Center near Guerneville, CA.
— Steven van Keuren, 16 Mar 2022
We both started square dancing in 1992, John in the spring class, me in the fall. Since I'd taught music, I decided to learn to call square dancing, and took the caller class at the Chicago convention--1995. I didn't want to compete with Finest City Squares in San Diego, so we started Ocean Squares in Carlsbad, 25 miles north, in 1996.
The club was also one of the results of implementing the Henzel Plan, which resulted in a lot of new dancers and clubs in the late 1990s, and an organization to do multi-club promotion. I acted as the FCS liaison to the association, but got a lot of heat from some members of FCS, who boasted that FCS was "San Diego's ONLY Gay and Lesbian Square Dance Club", and felt I was "stealing" members from FCS, when actually the OS members were all new people whom I recruited, some OS members also joined FCS and even became officers, and the "ONLY" motto is hardly something to boast about. Too bad more clubs haven't used the Henzel Plan--it worked!
Ocean Squares kept dancing until 2010, when it got too difficult for us to keep it up, and John was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. He kept dancing until about three years ago, bless his heart. And singing--in two choirs we were in.
— Steven van Keuren, 22 Nov 2020
We celebrated the Liturgy of Saints Serge and Bacchus (union service) in 1991 and renewed vows in 2006. We got a civil partnership in 2003, got married in San Francisco in 2004, which was annulled in Aug. 2004, and married again in San Diego on June 28, 2008. I like to say we're the only people I know who got married five times and never divorced. God really blessed us. Thirty-nine years with that wonderful man.
John was born on May 4 (Star Wars Day), 1948, in Paterson, New Jersey, and died at home around midnight in the early morning of Oct. 7, 2020, in San Diego, California.
John started square dancing in spring 1992 with Finest City Squares in San Diego, Ron Nelson calling. I started with the next class in fall 1992.
In 1993, we also started dancing with the Circulators, and joined that club.
I took a caller class at the Chicago convention and in 1996 we started Ocean Squares in Carlsbad dancing at Pilgrim United Church of Christ, with me calling. Carlsbad is about 30 miles north of downtown San Diego; we started Ocean Squares there to avoid conflict with Finest City Squares. Even so, there was some ill will with a few FCS members, who regarded Ocean Squares as invading "their" space ("Finest City Squares: San Diego's only Gay and Lesbian Square Dance Club"). We shut down Ocean Squares in 2010, not able to find anyone else to take it over. So John was a founding member of Ocean Squares, 1996-2010.
We danced off and on with quite a few of the other (hetero) clubs in the San Diego area. John danced up through Advanced, and I got through C-1 and half of C-2. John last danced three years ago, 2017, pulled through with a lot of help from the other dancers. Even after that, he came with me to the dances until the virus shut down FCS in March 2020.
— Steven van Keuren, 25 Oct 2020
Memorial Panel
Photos
With Finest City Squares at Track II Chicago, 1995
With Ocean Squares at Wheel & Deal, 1997
With Finest City Squares at Weave The Rose, 1998
With Ocean Squares at Weave The Rose, 1998
With his partner Steve van Keuren at Track II Chicago, 1995
John (L) and his partner Steven van Keuren (R) at Weave The Rose, 1998
