Art Martin, who died Saturday (Aug. 11, 2012) at age 64, was a nationally known labor lawyer, who often represented low-paid employees working in health care. He lived in University City, Mo.

As a young man, he was a union factory worker. He became a union organizer before deciding he could win more fights as a lawyer.

Last year, he was the only witness to testify for unions before a Republican-dominated U.S. House committee investigating whether labor laws are unfair to business.

Arthur Joseph Martin died Saturday after a morning bicycle trip near Fredericktown, Mo., with his wife, Janine Martin, also a labor attorney. Doctors later found that he had suffered a heart attack, she said Wednesday.

Mr. Martin was one of the relatively few labor lawyers here or elsewhere who represent workers.

"Unions simply cannot pay that kind of hourly rate," said Mike Wolff, a professor at St. Louis University School of Law.

Read the full obituary in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch