Page 14 - Amarillo Senior Link Magazine Spring 2022 - Online Magazine

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Kenneth Martindale
My Pawpaw,
My Hero
by Jackson Dedek
hero is someone you look
up to, admire, and can
A always count on, putting
others’ needs above their own.
Everyone has a superhero in their
life who doesn’t wear a cape; my
hero is my Pawpaw. He is a hard
person to describe because there
is nobody else quite like him. You
rarely hear him say a bad word
about anyone, and he would give
the shirt off his back to someone
in need. He always has a smile, a
14 Amarillo Senior Link
Senior
kind word, and
a watermelon
for everyone he
Jolly Rancher
meets.
Kenneth
Martindale was
born March 6,
1942, south of
Shamrock, Texas
to Arthur Bart
Martindale
and Lillie
Lucille Voyles
Martindale – the
third of four
children. He learned the
definition of hard work
early in life. He helped farm,
build fences, and pick cotton.
He lived in a world with
no electricity, let alone air
conditioning.
He graduated from
Samnorwood High School
in 1960 and went on to
Clarendon Junior College.
He advanced to West Texas
State University, where he
got a bachelor's degree in
Education. He returned to
Samnorwood to coach and
teach and later obtained
his Master’s in Education
Administration from West
Texas State University and
Southwestern Oklahoma
State University.
He played basketball all through
school and served as a coach,
teacher, bus driver, principal, and
superintendent in Samnorwood
for a total of 28 years. His impact
in that community is still felt, and
he even helps facilitate the Ex- the State Advisory Juvenile Board
Students Reunion every year. The
school closed in 2016, but anytime
my mom runs into someone
from Samnorwood, there’s an
indescribable bond because of
Senior
education career, he also worked
my Pawpaw’s impact. During his
Sheriff Department as a deputy
for the Collingsworth County
and served in the Texas National
Guard for seven years.
He and my Mimi, Sandra Kay
Purkey, married October 13, 1972.
He helped raise her two children,
Mike Macina and Kimberly Macina
Bonner, and my mom – Melanie
Martindale Dedek. In 1992, he,
Mimi, and my mom moved
to Shamrock, where he tried
retirement for a while, but that did
not last long. He missed helping
people.
He went back to work in Shamrock
but this time with the police
department, and in December 1994,
he became Chief Juvenile Officer
for the 31st Judicial District which
included Hemphill, Wheeler,
Roberts, and Lipscomb Counties.
He was awarded the Amador R.
Rodriguez Lifetime Achievement
Award for his work in that role.
At the award presentation, it was
said that he has a genuine love for
the work he does with kids and
is always looking out for their
best interests. His goal was not to
punish juvenile offenders, but to
figure out ways to help them.
Sometimes, when I’m with him,
a random person will come up
and thank him for looking out for
them when they were in school. He
taught me that some kids do not
know any better because that was
how they were raised, that nobody
was there to teach them right from
wrong.
Pawpaw was elected chairman of
and served for four years, two
years as Vice-President of JJAT
(Juvenile Justice Association of
Texas). He retired from Juvenile