Martin Edward Urra

We are saddened to announce the passing of Martin (Marty) Edward Urra on August 11th, two days after his 78th birthday. He leaves behind his cherished wife of 38 years, Debby, his four children, Terri, Marty, David, and Charlie, and four grandchildren, John Jr., Sarah, Lauren, and Thomas. His devoted sons and daughters-in-law, John Sr., Veronica, Lulu, and Syrel are also grieving our loss. Marty was a dedicated son to his parents, Martin and Oscilia, throughout their lives. He is survived by his sister, Maria, his brother-in-law, Marc, and his niece and nephew, Susie (also his Goddaughter) and Michael, as well as their spouses, and children. Marty’s extended family, include Carlos Antonio (his Godson), numerous aunts, uncles, and so, so many beloved cousins which were a constant joy and presence in his life.

Marty came to the United States at the age of 12, and served his new country in the US Army, 69th Aviation Company – 18th Airborne Corps. He was a skilled mechanic and moved back to Miami in 1968 to accept an apprenticeship with Eastern Airlines. He quickly rose through the ranks, both as a mechanic, chief steward, the newspaper editor, and within the union, eventually serving as the president of both the IAM LL702, and the South Florida AFL-CIO (each for 8 years consecutively). While Marty had always had a service mindset, these experiences developed him into a tireless advocate for the labor movement and wider community. During his time as president of these organizations, Marty served on numerous boards including the Florida Legislature’s “Three Member Panel” regulating Worker’s Compensation, Eastern Financial Federal Credit Union, South Florida Workforce which created a One-Stop System and Welfare to Work Committees, Dade/Monroe WAGES Coalition where he served as Chairman, Beacon Council of Dade County, Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau, United Way, FIU Institute of Government, and Business Coalition for Americans with Disabilities where he served as President. The list goes on however, he was a founding board member of two boards that seemed to touch his heart a little more: The Greater Miami Service Corps, and Alliance for Aging where he also served as President.

After Miami experienced Hurricane Andrew in 1992, Marty went on to open up his own company SMART PPN, Inc. where he was President and CEO. This company was designed as a post-disaster damage mitigation concept that was devised from the many community activity experiences after Andrew. This concept was designed to save billions in costs to insurance companies and therefore homeowners on their future insurance rates by reducing damage and covering homes with tarps immediately after a storm during the dry-out window. He even communicated with President Bill Clinton and received an executive order for materials to deploy as soon as a state of emergency was declared.

One of Marty’s major guiding principles was developing Win-Win proposals when bringing groups and people together. He was incredibly skilled at not only hearing all sides, but helping all sides hear each other. If Marty was leading an effort, all parties walked away from a negotiation feeling heard and like a WIN was achieved.

Throughout his life, Marty was always dedicated to his family. When his parents were living, he made it his habit to stop by their house on his way home almost every day to check on them and help them with various tasks. He visited his parents with his kids at least weekly to make sure that they too had a strong sense of family. As everyone grew up, he found new ways to bind everyone together… major family events around the holidays! In fact, he literally bought his last two homes around creating gathering places for his family. He owned a garage full of tables and chairs just for these big family events, and would create intricate seating charts (as spreadsheets, of course) that would have impressed Martha Stewart! There was always so much food that he and Debby had to-go boxes ready for their family to use at the end of these feasts! It brought him so much happiness to have all of the generations gathered together in their home.

Marty spent the last year of his life traveling around the country with Debby visiting their children and grandchildren in his (stick-shift, of course) Mustang, top-down and sight-seeing from the car. His grown grandchildren, John, his wife, Bryce, Sarah, and her fiancé, Jake, were all living in the Carolinas, and so Marty and Debby visited several times in recent months and enjoyed seeing how their lives were headed in such neat directions. Closer to home, he enjoyed spending time with his granddaughter, Lauren, in the Tampa area, taking in her dance recitals, and celebrating at Chili’s by twinning and each ordering their favorite Triple Dipper. And definitely one of the highlights of his last year was the birth of his youngest grandchild, Thomas, and the fact that he and Debby were there extensively to help with Thomas’s childcare during his early months. Marty was all about babies, and so he spent hour after hour delighting in Thomas’ every milestone and sharing them through Facebook with others!

Some of our family’s other favorite memories of Marty include his ability to tell you the plot line of every Hallmark movie made ever (kiss her!); his non-stop posts counseling his friends on the issues that he was passionate about; his gift for storytelling expressed by writing stories bragging about his kids and grandkids, and sharing his life experiences; his copious spreadsheets tracking everything and nothing; and his ability to problem-solve (rig) anything.

Words cannot express how much we love you, and we will miss all this and so much more, Poppy!