World loses a visionary

James Martin, who died this week, came from a humble background. But he went from a brilliant student at Oxford to highflyer at computer giants IBM before striking out on his own to make a multi-million dollar fortune as an author and speaker.

Dr Martin – who became the biggest-ever single donor to Oxford University when he gave $150 million to fund studies into global problems – was born in Leicestershire, England, the son of a clerical worker.

His intelligence was recognised when he gained entry to his local grammar school and he went on to win a scholarship to the prestigious Keble College, Oxford, graduating with a degree in physics.

Dr Martin, who was 79, completed National Service, the then-compulsory stint in the armed services, before joining computer giants IBM in the late 1950s.

He shone with the firm, joining its elite systems research institute in New York and became obsessed with the idea of linking computers together through a telecoms link — what eventually became the Internet.

But it was not until he took a year off to carry out a series of lectures around the world warning businessmen of the coming technology boom that he really found his vocation.

He left IBM and set up his own company, eventually to be named Headstrong, and embarked on a prolific career as a best-selling author, futurologist and lecturer.

Dr Martin predicted the Internet, mobile devices and home computers and the rise of Internet shopping as well as using unmanned rovers would explore distant planets decades when these ideas were still in the realms of science fiction.

He lived in Bermuda for several years before buying Agar’s Island near Hamilton Harbour and creating a multi-million dollar private retreat, incorporating parts of a 19th century British Army gunpowder store and the original Bermuda Aquarium into the design, which included a 300-year-old temple brought from Bali.

But he insisted he was not becoming a recluse and in fact he played host to a succession of famous figures, from science politics and entertainment.

Among his guests were Microsoft founder Bill Gates, singer David Bowie and his wife, the model Iman and former New York Mayor Rudy Guiliani.

But he was inspired to change direction from technology to the world’s problems after the trauma of the 2001 9/11 terror attacks in New York, which happened when he was delivering a lecture in Hong Kong.

He wrote the best-selling The Meaning of the 21st Century – A Vital Blueprint for Ensuring Our Future.

And the man who lived quietly, but amassed a huge fortune, came to widespread public attention when he decided to give away a total of $150 million to found a school to study the problems of the world at his old university, Oxford.

He said in an interview in the UK’s Independent newspaper in 2011: “I was getting more and more concerned about the problems of the planet.

“The idea behind the school was to say that all these subjects needed research of very high quality and on all of them there would need to be multi-disciplinary research.

“Yet there was almost no multi-disciplinary research going on in universities.”

He even managed to draw in Bill Gates – who had visited his Bermuda home several years before – and wealthy financial guru George Soros with his enthusiasm who, with others, matched funds to set up the school, now the Oxford Martin School.

Dr Martin said: “Oxford is one of those places where you can pull all those things together. 

“In most universities, the scientists don’t talk to the philosophers and so on, but in Oxford they do.”

And – when his book on the perils and challenges of the new century became a film, his Bermuda neighbour at the time, actor Michael Douglas was so impressed, he offered to narrate it.

Dr Martin told The Independent: “The nice thing about Michael Douglas is that you also get Catherine Zeta Jones. We showed them the film down in the gunpowder vaults.”

Dr Martin was last year appointed to the US-based Global Security Institute as an advisory board member because of his 50 years’ knowledge of high technology and his commitment to the elimination of nuclear weapons.

When he died, Dr Martin was writing The War and Peace of the Nuclear Age, which was expected to influence world opinion against the retention of nuclear arsenals.

Jonathan Granoff, President Global Security Institute, said last night: “James Martin was a visionary who used his considerable intellectual gifts to enhance our lives by helping to develop technologies that bring us together — such as the Internet — and to warn us of misuses of technology. 

“His generosity was expressed through creating environments where solutions to global challenges could be pursued, such as the James Martin School for Nuclear Nonproliferation at the Monterrey Institute and the Oxford Martin School at Oxford University. 

“His concerns were never petty and his energy was consistently devoted to investigating how to improve the human condition. 

“He made his fortune by writing and teaching and he lived his life as an exercise of service. 

“He was on the Advisory Board of the Global Security Institute and passionately shared our devotion to obtain the security of a world without nuclear weapons.”