Sandy Martin, who has died at the age of 87, played in the Knowlton Harmony Band for the better part of a decade and before that was well known as the trombonist and tuba player in a local Bavarian band.

It was while he was playing in Knowlton that Page Thornton, the owner of Clairol, approached him and asked him to work at the Knowlton factory, now known as KDC one. Sandy worked there for 13 years before the Thornton family sold the operation. Milton Anthony Martin was born in 1931 in the house on the 200-acre family farm in Frost Village where his family has lived since the 1880s. After high school, he attended the Montreal Music Conservatory where he studied the trombone. He came back to run the family dairy farm and married Lilian Bélanger in 1960.

The Martin family not only milked cows but they had a `milk run’ delivering their milk to local people. When government regulations became too stringent, they sold to Chagnon Dairy of Waterloo. He sold the dairy herd and kept beef cattle.

Sandy played with his band all over the area including at the old Alouette Lodge, a hotel where the condos at 400 Lakeside are today. “He also sang and was at the microphone because he could speak both languages,” says his son Pierre, who milks a herd of Jersey cattle at Elmsmead, the Martin family farm. “His biggest pride was making high-quality maple syrup. He used to supply Mayor Jean Drapeau of Montreal who gave the syrup to dignitaries as gifts.”

Sandy Martin is survived by his five children: Pierre, John, Mark, Katherine, Daniel and twelve grandchildren.