MARTIN HOUSE ANNOUNCES JOHN COURTIN TO STEP DOWN AS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR (02/06) BUFFALO, NEW YORK - The Martin House Restoration Corporation announced today that John C. Courtin will be stepping down from his role as executive director this summer upon completion of eight years of service in this capacity. One of the incorporators and founding directors of the MHRC in 1992, Mr. Courtin gave up his legal career in the summer of 1998 to begin serving as the MHRC's full-time executive director. "John Courtin has guided the Martin House restoration project through some of its most dynamic years. He devoted himself to this project with boundless energy from day one. His long tenure was filled with accomplishment. We thank him for his good service and wish him every success in his future endeavors," said Howard Zemsky who served as MHRC's board president from 2001-2006. During Mr. Courtin's long tenure, more than $30 million was raised. The entire Darwin D. Martin estate was reassembled. The three non-historic apartment buildings will have been demolished. The house at 143 Jewett was acquired and renovated. The missing Martin House pergola, conservatory and carriage house will have been reconstructed. And much restoration work on the Martin House itself was completed. "The things I can do best for the Martin House are now mostly done," John Courtin said. "Serving as the leader of the Martin House team has been a joy and a privilege, for the Martin House project is blessed with some many advantages at present - a courageous board, an outstanding staff, a devoted cadre of high-spirited volunteers and a community that increasingly recognizes the power of Frank Lloyd Wright's legacy to draw visitors to Buffalo. Together, we have done the improbable. We have put the entire Darwin D. Martin estate back together for the first time in 70 years. It has been a high honor to have had this wonderful opportunity to lead the Martin House project for so many years," Courtin said. Later this year, Courtin, 57, will become the president of the Friends of Acadia, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving and protecting the outstanding beauty, the ecological vitality and the cultural distinctness of Acadia National Park and the surrounding communities on Mount Desert Island of the coast of Maine. The Martin House Restoration Corporation, founded in 1992, is dedicated to restoring Frank Lloyd Wright's Martin House Complex to its condition as of 1907. The corporation has a 30-member board of directors, 375 active volunteers and a staff of seven. More than $35 million has been raised to restore this National Historic Landmark, making the MHRC the most successful Wright restoration project in America. # # #