June 18, 2026

#44 - Tina Martin

Show Notes

"Anything worth doing is worth overdoing." - Tina Martin

Picture the cheerfulness--and tendency to break into song--of 'The Sound of Music's' Maria or Mary Poppins. Transplant her to Tonga, one of the world's most isolated island nations. Electricity? No need. Running water? No need. Surround her by adoring children. Is it a Peace Corps adventure five decades removed or a musical just waiting to be written? Meet Tina Martin.

Despite moving around a lot, Tina Martin considers South Carolina her childhood home. And, with the exception of her various times abroad, she has called San Francisco home for 60 years. She served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Tonga, followed by teaching work in Spain and later with the U.S. International Voluntary Service in Algeria. She taught for more than three decades at the City College of San Francisco. She is also the author of three memoirs: Everything I Should Have Learned, I Could Have Learned in Tonga, Letters From Algeria and the Day Everything Changed, and Letters of Apology for My First Memoir.

In 1988, Tina participated in a 24-hour "Journals of Peace" event at the U.S. Capitol rotunda in Washington, DC, as one of 400 returned Peace Corps volunteers reading from the journals they kept during their service, at an event commemorating 25 years since John F. Kennedy's assassination.

Tina remains active with numerous San Francisco-based organizations, including the California Alliance for Retired Americans, OWL SF, Transit Justice, and Senior and Disability Action. She also continues to volunteer for animal and conservation welfare.