David Grier Martin, Jr.: Chapel Hill
1940 – 1985
David Grier Martin, Jr., known to all as D.G., died on Dec. 9, at his home in Chapel Hill with his wife by his side. He was 85.
Though born in Atlanta on May 24, 1940 and a childhood resident of Bristol, Tennessee, he grew up from age ten in Davidson and was a fervent North Carolinian, graduating from North Mecklenburg High School in 1958 and four years later with honors from Davidson College, where his father served as president from 1958 to 1968.
As D.G. would be first to tell, he played basketball for the Davidson Wildcats under Coach Lefty Driesell and captained Lefty’s first-ever winning college basketball team. To this day the Wildcat basketball team annually presents the “D.G. Martin Hustle Award” to the player who best epitomizes D.G.’s tenacious style of play.
D.G. was a proud Davidson alumnus, a devout Presbyterian, a Green Beret with the Army’s Special Forces, a lawyer, an author, a newspaper columnist, a radio and television personality, and a public servant. Nothing on his resume, though, captured the power of his smile, which attracted friends of all ages and circumstances. He made friends everywhere he went, from the roadside restaurants he wrote a book about, to Sutton’s Drugstore on Chapel Hill’s Franklin Street where he was a regular, to libraries, bookstores, and civic clubs across the state. D.G. was a lifelong learner with an insatiable curiosity and a teacher too, always happy to share what he knew.
He met his wife, Harriet Wall of Conway, South Carolina, on a blind date in 1963 while in the Army. They were married in 1966 after his first year at Yale Law School. After he completed his law degree, they moved to Charlotte, where D.G. practiced law for 20 years with the firm of Kennedy, Covington, Lobdell, and Hickman.
Simultaneously, over the last 30 years, he hosted close to 450 episodes of North Carolina BookWatch on UNC-TV, wrote a weekly newspaper column called One on One that ran in many papers across the state, recorded a WCHL radio interview program called Who’s Talking, and wrote two editions of the UNC Press book, Roadside Eateries, about places in North Carolina with good food and low prices run by likeable Tar Heels. For his service to the state, he became the 53rd recipient of the annual North Carolinian Society Award.
He is survived by his wife of more than 59 years, Harriet Wall Martin; his children Grier Martin (Louise) of Raleigh and May Bryan (Cotton) of Chapel Hill; beloved grandchildren Sara Martin and Maggie, Jake, and David Bryan; his sister Embry Howell (Joe), and multitudes of dear nieces, nephews, cousins, and friends.
He was preceded in death by his mother, Louise McMichael Martin, his father, David Grier Martin, Sr., and his brother, Jack McMichael Martin.
In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to University Presbyterian Church (209 E. Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27514), or to Triangle Land Conservancy (PO Box 1848, Durham, NC 27702).
A memorial service will be held at University Presbyterian Church in Chapel Hill on Saturday, January 3, 2026 at 11 a.m. The service will be live-streamed and recorded. View it here.
See the full obituary and sign a guest register here.
