Hope Moody Martin, 92, of California, Maryland died peacefully October 13, 2011 at The Hermitage in Solomons, Maryland. Born May 7, 1919, in her family home in Lincoln, Maine, she was the daughter of late Alexis Winfield Dudley and Jessie Ellen Moody.

She graduated from high school at Mattanarcook Academy in Lincoln, Maine. She attended University of Maine in Orono earning a degree in home economics and was a graduate Cum Laude. For her first job, she taught home economics in Elsworth, Maine. She introduced school lunches there in 1942.

She joined the Maine Extension Service in 1947 and eventually moved to Wyoming in 1949 to work with the Extension Service there. In July 1953 she met her husband, Bruce Martin, and they were married in December that year. They moved to Bakersfield, California for five years where she taught a junior high clothing class. In 1959, they moved to southern California and she taught at South Pasadena Junior High.

They moved back east in 1964 and settled in St. Mary's County in 1965. She worked for the University of Maryland Cooperative Extension Service in St. Mary's County. She earned her Master's degree in volunteerism. Since the Cooperative Extension Service had so many volunteers, she defined each position with accountability of hours served. When new integration laws took effect, she was instrumental in combining the segregated homemakers clubs in St. Mary's County.

Hope was the 1973 Maryland recipient of the Distinguished Service Award by the National Extension Association of Family and Consumer Sciences.

In 1979, she initiated what became the Oyster Festival Cook-Off Contest and in 2004 she was recognized for her contribution at the Oyster Festival and given a special plaque. She retired from the Extension Service in 1981.

She is survived by three nieces and a nephew and was a great, great aunt.

She was preceded in death by her parents, husband Bruce Martin, her brother, Stewart Moody and her sister Kathryn Moody.

Friends will be received from 9:00 a.m. until 9:45 a.m. on Friday, October 21, 2011 at the Brinsfield Funeral Home, Leonardtown, MD. A graveside ceremony will be held at Charles Memorial Gardens on Friday, October 21, 2011 at 10 a.m. with Rev. Mike Jones officiating.

Memorial contributions may be made to Hollywood Volunteer Rescue Squad, P.O. Box 79, Hollywood, MD 20636.

Arrangements by the Brinsfield Funeral Home, P.A., Leonardtown, MD.