Ken Norton shared this information about Martin Jobe whom he knew as his BEST friend! Unfortunately Martin passed on at age of 24 in 1950.  Martin was born in Stockton but raised with his family at the Yosemite Valley.  They moved back to Stockton after Martin's father died while working as a ranger at the Yosemite Valley.  At CSD Ken and Martin became great friends.  One of their best summer times (1944) was that they with Eugene Rianda worked as washers at the Camp Curry cafeteria at the Yosemite Valley for three months.  Everybody at the valley noted a familiar sight of three of them motorcycling on Jobe's HD all summer.  They motored or hiked to every peak including Half Dome enclosed the Valley.  They fished often, swam every day in a pool or Merced River, had three meals a day gratis, earned 90 dollars a month, and had great, great time.  Martin graduated from CSD in 1947.  In 1948 he married Pat Holloran, CSD '46 in Los Angeles.  Ken was the best man while he was a junior at Gallaudet College.

In 1949 Martin suddenly became ill with stomach cancer and died in September 1950 when Ken started his teaching career at the Oklahoma School for the Deaf.  Ken is still missing him sorely.  In fact he could write a book about their friendship.  Martin and Ken motorcycled to Los Angeles twice.  At one point on US 101 highway, they raced with the Daylight train.  The engineer at the train warned them to slow down.  They did.