For Scott Martin, his new role at the Fort Monroe Authority is something of a homecoming.
The Fort Monroe Authority Board of Trustees unanimously selected the Virginia-raised parks administrator to serve as its second-ever chief executive officer. He was chosen out of 257 applicants from across the country.
John Reynolds, chair of the search committee, said Martin brings a “visionary and sunny outlook” to the position, as well as a “keen sense of place and historic preservation as a basis for visitor enjoyment and education, recreation opportunity and economic development.”
Martin will step into the shoes of inaugural CEO Glenn Oder, who retired at the end of September after 13 years.
“The real sense of responsibility, it presses on you,” Martin said. “I'm a little bit overwhelmed emotionally, but I totally know that's the right space to be in.”
Martin grew up in Hopewell and started his career as an interpretive park ranger in Petersburg for the National Park Service. Early on, he led the Franklin County, Va. Commerce & Leisure Services Department as its first director.
He went on to multiple senior leadership roles over 20 years, most recently working as administrator of Chattanooga Parks & Outdoors in Tennessee.
“This was not on my bingo card,” Martin said. “When the opportunity presented itself, it spoke to me and my wife in a way that's fundamentally different than any other landscape’s ever spoke to us.”
Part of what drew him to the job is familial ties to Tidewater. Martin had family who lived in Norfolk and Suffolk in his youth.
“I definitely remember getting seasick on a head boat offshore here,” Martin said. “I never thought I’d have the opportunity or come home.”
Martin plans to spend some time with Oder and others around the national monument to learn more about the work that’s been done since the property began to transition from U.S. Army ownership, as well as what the future looks like.
“Most importantly, probably, among everything else is … learn the stories of the site,” he said. “Learn the integration with the neighborhoods around it, learn how it already talks to it.”
Martin is looking forward to continuing infrastructure development at the fort when he starts in January, and the completion of the African Landing Memorial commemorating the place where the first African people forced to journey to Virginia landed in 1619.
With that, he also plans to continue the authority’s relationship with organizations like Project 1619, Inc., the William Tucker 1624 Society and the Contraband Historical Society.
He referenced the writing of Barry Lopez, nationally-renowned nature and culture essayist, when talking about the importance of connections like those and the power they have to transform people and cities.
“We have tended to think about agency in terms of place,” Martin said. “But really what we’re thinking about is story, and what all those different partners do is they each carry their own bit of the story.”
