When Rick Martinez approached the doorway of his father's Old Santa Fe Trail barber shop, there was a card in an envelope lodged in the crease of the door.

My condolences for your loss. Bob was a friend to thousands of Santa Feans. He will be missed. — A long time customer.

"That was the kind of impact my father had," Martinez said of his father, Bob, who died Monday of complications from diabetes.

Bob Martinez was a celebrity of sorts in Santa Fe. Almost everyone got haircuts at his barber shop, which he opened in June 1961.

But it wasn't just haircuts that the customers came for. And it wasn't just customers who came in, either. Bob's Barber Shop was the place Santa Feans came to get their daily fix of sports and politics. Whether it was the latest winner of the Super Bowl or the newest laws created up the street at the Roundhouse, conversations were nonstop from 9 to 5. It helped that some of Bob's customers were experts in those fields.

All sorts of former governors and state senators came to Bob's place for a "cleanup," as well as former Dallas Cowboys quarterback and longtime Santa Fean Don Meredith.

"I always had a hard time determining who were actually his customers and who were actually his friends," said Martinez's grandson, Jeremy Martinez.

Bowling was a popular topic of conversation inside the barber shop. For decades, Bob's Barber Shop had its own bowling team.

"We started playing at the old Sierra Lanes on St. Michael's," said Leo Moya, who had been friends with Bob since their teens. Moya, 78, is four years older than Bob Martinez was, but the two grew up in the same Santa Fe neighborhood. Moya was also part of the group of friends who would spend two weeks at a weekend bowling tournament.

"We traveled all over the nation," Moya said. "We'd go to a three-day tournament and then spend the rest of the time visiting new places. We were never really good at bowling, but it was just a fun thing to do."

And it wasn't just bowling tournaments that the friends traveled to. Bob Martinez became fond of the Los Angeles Rams professional football team while in barber school in the early 1950s and attended Rams games. There were also trips to see Notre Dame football and Los Angeles Lakers basketball games.

But it was his family that brought him back to Santa Fe. In 1955, Bob Martinez bought his grandmother's home on Old Santa Fe Trail and turned the back bedroom into his barber shop. Sitting in the lone barber chair, Rick Martinez explained his father's connection to his shop of 47 years.

"This room, that the barber shop is in, used to be my dad's bedroom growing up," Rick Martinez said. "That's why this place had always been a home away from home for him. It was more than just an office to him."

Bob Martinez's barber shop never lost that old-time feel. The barber's chair is original, as are the cabinets, sink and countertops. Even the Coca-Cola machine sitting in the corner still kicks out 8-ounce glass bottles at 10 cents a piece. Until the day he closed up shop, customers could come in for a haircut, a hot shave or a hot-towel treatment.

"He was one of the few barbers around here who still used a straight shaver," said Martinez's son Fred. "He still used a shaving belt to sharpen his shaver as well."

Fred Martinez said his father had another use for the old-time leather shaving belt as well — whenever his children were misbehaving.

"Is it the same one? I thought the one he used on us was larger," said Rick Martinez, examining the leather belt with his brother.

Most of Bob Martinez's children and grandchildren worked at the barber shop. Most would sweep up hair or clean outside. And all were rewarded.

"He would give me five or 10 bucks and tell me to go buy a Coke," said Jeremy. "We both knew Cokes never cost that much."

When Bob Martinez cut his last head of hair in October 2006, haircuts cost $12. It was a price that rose gradually throughout the years and each price raise made Bob Martinez cringe. He never wanted to put a dent into the pockets of his friends and customers, but he had seven children to raise.

Yet, depending on who you were, the cost of a haircut varied.

"There were these old-timers who came in still thinking that haircuts were a dollar," Rick Martinez said. "And dad never told them any different. They would come in, get their haircut and pay my dad a dollar, and dad never said anything to them. It was Dad's way of respecting the older generation."

That reasoning that made Bob's Barber Shop one of the most popular attractions in Santa Fe.

The old-time look and feel of his barber shop was featured in national magazine ads for different products because of its rich culture and look.

"That showed just how influential some of his customers were," Rick Martinez said.

But Bob Martinez's willingness to treat everyone like a friend made him one of the most popular people in Santa Fe. And like the letter said, he will be missed.

Contact Todd Bailey at 986-3088 or at tbailey@sfnewmexican.com.