Martin Gene Kautz was born January 31, 1960 in Brush, Colorado to Gene and Jeanette Kautz. He was raised in the nearby community of Hillrose, Colorado, along with his three sisters.

Marty attended school in Hillrose through the fifth grade, then attended school in Brush until he graduated in 1978. In junior high and high school, he participated in football, basketball and wrestling. In 1977, Marty was on the Brush High School football team as they competed against Carbondale for the state championship title.

Marty scored the only touchdown for Brush that day, though it wasn’t enough to gain the championship.

After high school Marty attended Hastings College in Hastings, Nebraska for one year. He came back to the Hillrose area and worked for a little over a year for a local farmer.

He married Deb Mayhugh on November 29, 1980. They had two sons, Jake and Ty, and they were the light of his life. He spent his weekends with his family as much as he could, and also enjoyed gardening, bowling, playing softball and hunting. His nephews idolized him and loved spending time with their funny “Uncle Marty.”

Marty was hired at the American Eagle Distributing Company, and eventually became the branch manager there, and continued in that position until his death. While working at American Eagle, Marty achieved the highest award given by Anheuser Busch in 1990. The award was the Ambassador of Excellence and it was given to the distributorship in the United States that met certain sales goals, kept a certain level of inventory and kept a clean warehouse and trucks. While working for American Eagle Distributing, Marty also became active in helping and sponsoring numerous charities and activities, including Easter Seals of northeastern Colorado.

Marty joined the Brush Volunteer Fire Department in 1994, and found a new family in his fellow firefighters. He would do whatever he could to help any of his firefighter brothers if they were in need, and enjoyed getting to know all of them. He was always willing to learn what they could teach him, and pursued his EMT license through the fire department.

On August 31, 1995, while on a call to save a choking child, Marty was killed after another first responder ran a stop sign and collided with Marty’s vehicle. Three fellow firefighters were riding with Marty and were also injured. Marty was a wonderful, loving husband, dad, son, brother, grandson and true friend to many who love and miss him dearly.