I think of him as the ideal of the scientific American: curious, friendly, wide-ranging, well-read, skeptical, smart, and profoundly decent—or, if you prefer, just a midwesterner who liked math. His puzzles were one of my formative influences growing up; the same is true for many of my friends. Even just offhand, I can think of dozens of ideas that I first met in his books. Thank you.
Years ago I heard a funny story that I think was about him , But I am not sure that it was him, perhaps somebody out there knows?.
The story was that he (or Possibly a friend of his) as the result of some sort of a ‘bet’ between them, made up a silly and totally unbelievable story about pyramids and blunt razors. This story went on to tell of Martins surprise when this ‘Idea’ gained wide credulous circulation and then of how venues turned down his repeated offers to tell the truth (for free), in preference for paying for speakers extolling the magical powers of Pyramids.