Inducted in 2019
Advertising Executive
Member, Prep Board of Trustees (1985-1990)
Advisor to the Prep President (2004-2013)
Father of Two Prep Graduates

Martin Waters III wrote of his father, “Fordham Prep meant the world to my Dad.” 

So too did Martin Waters, Jr. mean the world to Fordham Prep: Good Ol’ Marty, the kid who showed up from Parkchester in September of 1953 — and never left.

Martin Joseph Waters was born on January 2, 1940 in New York City.  His father, Martin, Sr., worked in the printing industry, and his mother, Helen Farry Waters was a homemaker.  In those days Parkchester, where Marty grew up, was a new housing development on the landscape of the Bronx.  As a boy, he was a member of St. Helena’s Church and attended the parish grammar school before making the trip up and around the Zoo to Rose Hill to become a member of the Prep Class of 1957.

From his very first days in Fr. Frances Staebell’s freshman homeroom, Marty loved everything about his Hughes Hall years: the academic rigor, the spirit of sportsmanship, the fraternal camaraderie, and, of course, the Jesuit spirituality that informed every aspect of school life.  He was a four-year member of the Knights of the Blessed Sacrament, a Maroon Key honors student, and played a season with the JV Football Team. 

But it would be for his four-year stint on the Track Team that Marty would be most remembered: a four-year “Foxtrotter” (as Prep runners were known in those days) nicknamed for their tireless coach, fellow Hall of Honor inductee Mr. Joseph Fox.

After graduation, Martin would continue with the Jesuits at Holy Cross, graduating in 1961, then going on to earn an MBA from Columbia in 1963 before serving with the Army National Guard at Fort Dix.

In August of 1964, Marty married Helen Mitchell, an alumna of the Ursuline School in New Rochelle, New York and Holy Cross where they met.  Together, Martin and Helen would raise four children, Helen, Martin III, Heather and John.  The boys would graduate from the Prep in 1984 and 1996 respectively, while the girls would make their own Maroon connections through the University’s School of Education — Helen as a student; Heather as a professor.

Waters’ first position in the advertising world was at the venerable Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn Agency, launching him into a successful forty-year career.  After serving as vice president of media with BBDO, Waters would move on to a directorship at Jordan, Case, McGrath and Taylor, and finally, in 1990, to Independent Television Networks, a company where he would hold the position of vice president and general manager.  In the mid-1980s, Marty developed the concept of the “unwired network,” a system whereby companies could advertise nationally by purchasing highly-researched, precisely-targeted local spots through an advertising brokerage. His strategy would revolutionize the industry for decades to come.

But for all the selling he did throughout his career, the one thing Martin Waters never sold was his soul.  As notorious as the “mad men” of the ad business have been portrayed, Marty remained grounded, devoted to his family and friends, a true “Man for Others” and a man of great faith — so much so that during the New York City Blackout of 1977, stranded in Manhattan with no way home, given the option of spending the night in his office, at one of the impromptu blackout parties at a nearby bar, or at one of the hotel rooms that were offered to him, Marty chose to sleep in the place where he felt most connected: the pews of St. Agnes’ Church on 43rd Street.

All through his college and graduate school days, as a newlywed, then as father of young children, and throughout the whole of his long and successful career, Martin Waters never strayed from the Prep for more than a few months at a time.  Whether at reunions, Turkey Bowls, phonathons,  Prep gatherings, or as a mentor to fellow alums or their children, Marty was always there to lend his time and talent, support and his infectious enthusiasm for the mission of the school he loved so very much. 

Marty even arranged for his son, John, to receive First Holy Communion at the old Shea Hall chapel in the lobby of the Prep: Maroon to the very core.

Waters also served his alma mater in official capacities as a member of the Board of Trustees from 1985-1990, and as  advisor to the president during the tenure of Fr. Kenneth Boller.  As a trustee, he worked closely on the Prep’s Capital Campaign with fellow Hall of Honor inductee Fr. Maloney and was also instrumental in the construction of the Leonard Theatre.  The keenness of his vision would help to prepare Fordham Prep for the 21st century.

Martin Waters, Jr. passed away on October 5, 2018.  A resident of Larchmont, New York at the time of his passing, he would leave behind his beloved Helen, his children and eight grandchildren.

He would also leave behind an extraordinary legacy at Fordham Prep, the school that meant so much to him, and the school where his memory will be kept always. Requiescat in pace.