The Chesapeake Bay Media family has lost one of its leaders– inventor and tech industry pioneer Dr. Rocco Martino, who served as chief financial officer for the company that produces Chesapeake Bay Magazine, Bay Bulletin, and the local Bay Weekly newspaper.
91-year-old Martino, who is also the father of our CEO John Martino, passed away of cancer at his home in Villanova while surrounded by his family.
Rocco Martino, born in Canada to Italian immigrants, earned a Ph.D. in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Toronto and his 1956 work in heat calculations for the re-entry of space vehicles later made manned space missions possible.
He contributed to major advances in computer systems and his software company XRT, Inc. automated financial, business, and medical systems for so many industries that by the mid-1990s, about three trillion dollars per day were processed through XRT’s systems. Then, Dr. Martino developed a precursor to the smartphone, securing patents a full decade before the iPhone was introduced.
The Martino family says Rocco was a latecomer to sailing, but embraced it fully, becoming Commodore of the Yacht Club of Sea Isle City near the family’s summer home as well as Commodore of the South Jersey Yacht Racing Association, both in the 1970s.
Dr. Martino was a founding partner of Chesapeake Bay Media in 2014, the newly-formed company that bought Dick Royer’s Chesapeake Bay Magazine upon his retirement. Dr. Martino brought a lifetime international business expertise to CBM as it expanded from one magazine to a multi-channel media company and custom publisher.
We are grateful for the groundwork Dr. Martino laid that allows Bay Bulletin to bring important news to the Chesapeake Bay region.
-Meg Walburn Viviano
