Rosemary Bakes-Martin, a resident of Woodmen Hills, is a successful woman by anyone’s standards. Her own standard of success for herself has been about raising three children to be good, independent adults. However, she has done much more than that. Bakes-Martin’s accomplishments and awards are extensive.She is the director of the El Paso County Department of Health and Environment, which oversees the public health of El Paso county’s more than 570,000 residents. The health department’s responsibilities include, but are not limited to, the control of infectious diseases, restaurant inspections, air and water quality and tracking infant mortality.Bakes-Martin was born in Richmond, Va., and raised in Burlington, Iowa. Her father was a painter and wallpaper hanger, and her mother was a part-time nurse. She was the oldest of five children. The family didn’t have much money and her father’s work was largely seasonal. Because he often worked long hours during the summer, Bakes-Martin’s father would load the entire family into the car and take them to her grandmother’s house where they would stay for the summer, allowing her father to return home to work.Her grandmother lived on a working tobacco farm, and Bakes-Martin remembers wonderful summers and memories of her mother sewing the whole time to make school clothes for all five kids.Bakes-Martin recalled one year as a soon-to-be teenager when her father had come back to pick up the family. The family owned a Nash Rambler, probably one that someone had given them, and it was small for two adults, five children, the clothes her mother had sewn and grandma’s food, including a few home-cured hams. “I thought it was the worst experience ever,” she said, “I really wished I was an only child. Now, looking back, it was great.”Bakes-Martin was a hard worker and an excellent student, who was particularly interested in science and math. She began working in a lab when she was 14. “When there were opportunities to take the skills I had and do something different with them, I always wanted to,” she said. “I wanted to make a difference. I went to a Catholic high school and a nun I really looked up to said, “At the end of your life, if you feel like you’ve made a difference, then you’ve been successful.”Because of the family’s financial situation, Rosemary worked to pay for her own college. She attended two years at a junior college, and then transferred to the University of Iowa, where she decided to major in math. A counselor told her that if she wanted to major in math, she’d need to get a teaching certificate. She didn’t want to teach, but the counselor said teaching was the only opportunity for women in the math field.So she changed her major to medical technology, and eventually started a second major in biology. Bakes-Martin did her internship at St. Anthony’s Hospital in Denver, and, in 1967, she was named Colorado’s “Medical Technology Student of the Year.” She graduated in 1968 with a bachelor’s degree in general biology and medical technology.Bakes-Martin spent a number of years supervising clinical laboratories as a registered medical technologist. From 1974 to 1978, she worked at St. Mary’s Hospital in Grand Junction as a research coordinator, evaluating the use of the CEA blood test for early cancer detection.In the late 1970’s, Bakes-Martin started graduate work at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. She received a master’s degree in laboratory medicine/clinical chemistry from UCHSC in 1983, became an instructor of medicine there and eventually became the assistant director of the medical technology program.In 1989, Bakes-Martin became a training advisor for The Centers for Disease Control. She traveled seven states and taught laboratory staff how to perform the new “Western Blot” test for AIDS. In 1991, she moved to Atlanta and became a health scientist at CDC headquarters, where she wrote regulations and worked with legislators regarding laboratory testing. While in Atlanta, Bakes-Martin finished her master’s degree in public health at Emory University.Bakes-Martin missed Colorado, and in 2000 welcomed the chance to come back. She accepted the job as deputy director of the El Paso county health department and in 2002 became its director. She often works 55-hour weeks, and the challenges are many but she gives a lot of credit to her staff. “It’s a huge responsibility,” Bakes-Martin said. “The way I see it, our job is to serve every one of the 570,000-some people in El Paso County. That’s big. I have a wonderful staff, though. They do all the work.”Bakes-Martin moved to Falcon in April 2003, the first resident in her filing of Woodmen Hills. She relishes the quiet and the restfulness of her home. On Falcon, she said, “I just like the people. I go to Safeway or other places in Falcon and nobody rushes me. It kind of reminds me of my Iowa roots in some ways. It feels like a neighborhood.”These days, in addition to her career, Bakes-Martin is enjoying the ups and downs of being one of the “sandwich generation.” Her three children are grown and gone, independent adults with whom she enjoys a close relationship. Her daughter, Laurie Bakes, lives in Denver and works for an Internet service provider. Oldest son Matt Bakes is a machinist for an aerospace engineering firm in Grand Junction and a member of the naval reserves. Her youngest son, Robert Martin, is a sophomore at New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell. He is a member of the Air National Guard, and is planning on a military career.One of the reasons Bakes-Martin bought in Falcon was to provide a home large enough for her parents to live with her. Her mother and father, with whom she still enjoys a good relationship, are age 84 and 87 and have health problems. Her father is in hospice now, but her mother still cares for a disabled When asked how she would like to be remembered, Bakes-Martin said, “I think rather than to be remembered for myself, I’d like something I was involved in to be remembered. I’d like employees of the health department to think I made it better. Mostly, I’d like future generations of my own family, my great grandchildren, to think that I was somebody they would have wanted to know.”More on Rosemary Bakes-MartinWho are your heroes? It may sound trite, but my mother. She did nurses’ training in Baltimore and at Johns Hopkins. Then she got married and had kids. But she always kept up with her field. She worked part time as a nurse and raised us kids. She still keeps up with politics, science and her field. My mother has made a difference.What do you think is the most basic trait needed to be a true leader? Patience. Knowing when to let people go their own way and when to step in and give direction.Do you have any pet peeves? I don’t have patience with people that think society owes them something. We all need to work together to make things better.Do you see any drawbacks to living in Falcon? None. People warned me about the wind. But I like the wind. It reminds me that I am on the plains.Any favorite spots to eat in Falcon? When I first moved out here, it was China Recipe. They have the best Chinese food. Now the new Italian restaurant is great and so is Frankie’s Too. We’ve got so many wonderful places now.Do you have a favorite vacation spot? Lately, I haven’t gone anywhere except Iowa (to visit her parents and brother). I haven’t had a real vacation for a long time. But when I was a kid, spending summers with my grandmother, I had an uncle in Baltimore who every summer would rent a beach house for a week in Ocean City, Md. I know Ocean City has changed, but I’ve always wanted to go back.What’s your favorite thing to do when you have a big block of time? I always wanted a sewing room and now I have one, and haven’t had time to use it. I did my drapes. But that’s what I’d do. I’d sew. Not clothes, but home dÈ cor things.What’s your favorite thing to do when you have a tiny block of time? Read. Catch up on public health. I try to get some Yoga in every day.Any favorite books or authors? Favorite movies? I like true historical books, mostly modern, like WWII. I like movies and theater. I am really looking forward to the movie, “Phantom of the Opera,”coming out in DVD. My favorite recent movie is “Saving Private Ryan,” because of the history.
