Martin Karlin turned 82 in October and one thought that never crossed his mind was retirement. 

“I can’t retire,” Karlin said in a recent interview.  “I feel young mentally. Physically, the machine is a little slower. If I keep moving, there is a chance I will keep on going.”

Karlin has spent the last 26 years helping the community as a member of the Union Emergency Medical Unit. And these were supposed to be post-retirement years.

In 1979, Karlin retired from his job as a wholesale grocer. Just to keep himself busy, he wanted to get a part-time job, doing a couple of days a week. That was when his son, Ross, a dentist and the present EMU chief,  asked him to volunteer for the EMU for two hours a day.

Karlin took the bait, and what started as a two-hour stint soon became a full-time volunteer job.

“I never thought I would volunteer for the ambulance squad,” he said. Karlin took the 120-hour training to be certified as  an Emergency Medical Technician by the New Jersey Board of Health. 

Over the years, he drove the ambulance, did CPR and even delivered babies. “It’s a nice feeling when you can help people out,” he said.

During his years with EMU, Karlin has been the president, vice president, and almost permanent fund-raising chairman. He has  won several awards for his service, including 15 years ago, when he received the award for responding to the most pager calls. One incident still etched in his memory was a fire that burned all day at Union Center, the downtown area. Karlin and other EMU volunteers worked for nine hours at a stretch helping out. About 25 firemen who fought the fire were taken to hospital for heat exhaustion. “That was quite a day,” he recalled.

What has been the hallmark of Karlin’s service with Union EMU is fund raising. As fund-raising chairman, Karlin has helped the EMU collect  $2 million  in donations for over  25 years.

The success is attributable to his peculiar fund-raising style. Rather than just sending out letters soliciting funds, Karlin goes out to the businesses asking for their support. During his fund raising rounds to businesses, Karlin says he would ask for their donation and thank them for a positive response. “You have to smile to people. You have to be good to people.”

But even when  he left a business empty handed, he would still thank the person. “I would say, ‘Thank you, anyway. If you need us, call us.’”

In one instance years back, Karlin and his team went to a business to ask for a donation and were almost thrown out. Less than a week later, the EMU received a call, and it was at this business where an employee’s finger was badly hurt. Nobody could look Karlin in the face when he showed up with his ambulance to help.

“People know how to dial 9-1-1 but they don’t know who EMTs are,” he said.  Two weeks after helping this employee, Karlin said, he received a check for $200 from the business owner, who subsequently became his friend and has been contributing $500 every year.

Karlin said the way you speak to people determines whether you would get something from them or not. He said, if he expected someone to give him $200 but he got $100, he would still thank the person and ask if the person would still help out if he came  back a few months later.

The person would most likely say, “That’s a good idea.” But if he had insisted on collecting  $200 from the beginning, the person might just tell him to either take the $100 or nothing. “You have to speak to people in a nice way.” he noted.

In October, Union’s Township Committee issued a proclamation honoring Karlin for his 25 years of service with the EMU, particularly for his fund-raising achievements. But Karlin does not consider his service to be anything more than what he was capable of doing.

“I can’t pat myself on the back. I know I am only doing what I am capable of doing.”

In town, many people have come to know Karlin and would often wave to him as he passes by.  Karlin has lived for the past 53 years in Union and has resided in the same house where he and his wife, Eileen, raised  their three children. Earlier this year, he and Eileen celebrated their 56th wedding anniversary. He believes that when husband and wife treat each other nicely, they will live happily together. “I look back at my life and I have no complaints,” he said.

Today, Karlin no longer drives the ambulance but continues to render service to the town through the EMU. Much of his time is spent fund-raising.

Karlin is a World War II veteran. He was in that group that dropped the atomic bomb in Japan that ended the war. “But I wasn’t in the plane that dropped the bomb,” he explained.

He considers his experience as a wholesale grocer to have sharpened his courtesy ability that he uses in fund raising. “Put a smile on your face when you hit someone in the face,” he said with a chuckle.

By Jerome Hule, Staff Writer, Union Leader