Respect Honesty Dedication

Martin L. Fleming was born and raised when road rage was not killing people by the thousands and unruly classrooms were not robbing students of part of their educations. Fleming was educated by those who gave him a chance to contribute in both business and community. His teachers taught him of respect, honesty, dedication and other traits that enabled him to succeed. A significant portion of this autobiography is devoted to programs Fleming developed to encourage civility within our society and build character within our schools.

Respect Honesty Dedication contains fascinating excerpts of decades of involvement in American history, politics and culture through the experiences and lens of author Martin L. Fleming.

About the Author

Martin L. Fleming was raised in a small farming community in Connecticut and graduated from Bryant University with a B.S. in Accounting. After a four-year enlistment in the United States Air Force during the Korean Conflict, he became employed by The Hartford Courant newspaper in 1956. He became its treasurer in 1968 and served in that position until moving to Washington D.C. in 1973 to take a position at The Washington Post newspaper as its controller and vice president.

After resigning from The Washington Post, Fleming held several positions before joining the Holladay-Tyler Printing Corporation in 1980. He served there for ten years until his retirement in 1990. At that time he resigned his position as senior vice president and chief financial officer and moved to Florida.

While in Connecticut, Fleming was very active in community affairs. He served his community as a member of the Windsor Locks Library Board, as an advisor to Junior Achievement and as Chairman of the Natural Resources Committee of the Capital Region Planning Agency. He resumed this type of service after moving to Florida as a member of the Palm Beach County School District Character Education Committee and as a member of an advisory committee that provided input to the State Department of Education on the implementation of character education in Florida's public schools. He organized Save Our Students (SOS), an initiative that brought about legislation that made character education mandatory in all of Florida's public schools.

Since retirement, Fleming has written five books, two of which dealt with deficit spending at the federal level. In American Politics and Fiscal Responsibility, published in 1998, he expressed the opinion that the legislation signed by President Clinton on August 5, 1997, calling for a balanced budget would not pass the test of time which turned out to be the case. His book, Retired Americans Talking Sense, published in 2004 was written for the sole purpose of saving America from a fiscal train wreck and sent to every member of the House and Senate budget committees.