Dexter Martin, 96, of Brookings died Friday December 9, 2011 in Avera Mckennan Hospital in Sioux Falls. Dexter was born in New York City on August 10, 1915 to Dorothy and William Martin. He graduated from Winnetka, IL High School in 1933. His family moved to Minneapolis shortly after graduation. Dexter followed his father and two brothers as a student at Dartmouth College in 1933 majoring in English. After two years, due to the Depression, Dexter left Dartmouth to work as a tutor to help support his family. Dexter later returned to Dartmouth graduating first in his class. Following work as a teaching assistant, Dexter received his master's degree also in English at the University of Pennsylvania and completed his doctoral work at Columbia University in New York. In a recent conversation with his doctor in Sioux Falls, he described himself as an "Ivy League Man". Dexter married the former Jean Dalton on May 29th, 1951 in San Francisco and they had three children. After a period of time teaching at three colleges in the Northeast, Dexter and his family settled in Brookings in 1967 and at South Dakota State University. Although Dexter retired from teaching many years ago, he immensely enjoyed talking with students at the SDSU library. A lifelong voracious reader, Dexter considered libraries to be as sacred as churches. He was an ardent fan of college and professional sports particularly the Iowa Hawkeyes (where son Steve graduated from) and the Twins and Vikings. Dexter loved classical music and any movie or television show that was a match for his quick and clever wit. A scholar to the end, Dexter had recently decided he did not know enough about the field of physics and so pursued self-study in that area. But Dexter's greatest joy was visiting with his children and grandchildren and following their school experiences and activities. His pride in his children Julie, Steve and Michael was only matched by his love and pride in his grandchildren Cody, Brooke, Molly, Dylan and Soraya. Dexter's children and grandchildren will remember him for his love of learning, his optimistic outlook and ability to weather tough times with grace and humor and, his ability to find beauty and meaning in life's seemingly smallest moments. His wife, Jean, his parents, two brothers and a sister, preceded Dexter in death. The family plans a private burial.