In Memory of Floyd Martinson - Obituary

Journal of Sex Research, Nov, 2000 by Ira L. Reiss

I met Floyd Martinson in 1962 at the Midwest Sociology Society meetings. I knew of him through his 1960 book, Marriage and the American Ideal. He was a quiet, unassuming man, but once you got to know him he would very forthrightly tell you about his ideas and research interest. I was fascinated by the fact that his major interest was in studying and writing about child sexuality, and yet he was active in the Lutheran Church and taught at a church-related college, Gustavus Adolphus in St. Peter, Minnesota. He was able to do this work and be supported by his college because of his obvious ability and his dedication to advance our knowledge of child sexuality. He chose to be at a church-related school because he wanted to do research "in the context of the church." More than anyone else in sociology has done, Floyd made us knowledgeable about sexuality in children.

Floyd was a frequent lecturer in many European countries, particularly in Scandinavia. I recall that in 1976 he was lecturing at the University of Oslo and I was teaching at the University of Uppsala. We exchanged homes for a few weeks during that time and saw each other at a number of professional meetings in Europe. His talks were very well received everywhere, in part because he carefully documented his research and explained his thinking. He was also a bold thinker. In a few of his talks he seemed to enjoy shocking some people by presenting his progressive ideas in order to help them realize the reality of child sexuality.

He ran into some media prejudice every now and then, as one might expect when you are studying child sexuality. I recall a Time Magazine article in the early 1980s that attacked the work he and Larry Constantine published in 1981 in Children and Sex. In the preface to this book Floyd and Larry noted the "accumulating evidence for the sexual and not-at-all innocent nature of childhood." They both conceived of children as "fully sexual beings." Some of the media writers attacked Floyd and Larry, but Floyd's college always backed him up and the publicity made his work better known.

Floyd retired in 1982, but he took the title of research professor and continued to regularly go to work. In reality, he had just retired from teaching. He continued to publish his work on child sexuality and on other areas. In all he published 9 books and over 50 professional papers. He was recognized as one of the world's authorities on child sexuality and he received many awards. In 1994 he published The Sexual Life of Children, but that was not to be his last book. His wife, Beatrice, informed me that when he died in April at age 83, he had a finished manuscript on day care for children that she will seek to publish. This book on day care is evidence that Floyd's very powerful desire to contribute to our understanding was not restricted to the area of child sexuality. He also wrote about many other family related areas. He was truly a role model for those of us in academia. He strengthened academic freedom and he expanded our knowledge of our sexual and family lives. Those who knew him and who knew his work will miss him, both professionally and personally.