The Richest Man in Town

I had the opportunity to read this book shortly after it came out. Anyone and everyone who has read this book knows Marty as the "Wal-Mart guy". Well, I knew him long before he was ever the "Wal-Mart guy".

My mom started working for the Volga Tribune shortly after I was born. Marty worked for Reynold's Printing, which shared a building with the newspaper. I think I first met Marty when I was two. He was always grandpa Marty (and continued to be grandpa Marty to so many kids that went through his cashier line). I found out last night that Marty was an influence in my mother's decision to pursue her art. He convinced her that if she entered a contest for a logo design that she would win. He even bet a steak dinner on it! Well, she did enter ... and she won. I believe that foundation is still using her logo to this day. The book talks about how Marty believes in people and my mom is the proof that that wasn't something that just came about in his old age. He always believed in people.

V.J. Smith (author of the book and good friend of Marty's) was speaking last night at the Old Sanctuary. It seems that a publishing company has picked up this little book and is bringing it to the masses. My mom knows V.J. and I remember when he spoke at my college graduation. He is an excellent speaker and, quite honestly, an exceptional person. He takes little credit for bringing Marty's life lessons to everyone. So, mom and I stopped down. She had a copy of the book, but has since lost track of it. I'm sure someone, somewhere is enjoying it right now. Well, we had to get her another copy and V.J. was signing the books too. We missed the majority of his speech but the tail end was pretty good! Mom bought me a copy too. When I got home last night, I sat down intending only to read the forward by the founder of the publishing company. I quickly realized that I was not going to be able to put it down. I read the whole thing .... again. I read it straight through the first time I read it too. And both times I cried my eyes out.

This is truly an exceptional book about the most wonderful man. The world certainly needs a lot more people like Marty in it.

If you have not read this book, you need to. While not everyone has had the opportunity to meet Marty or someone like him, this book gives you the best insight to how great he was.