Carroll Paul Martin, an attorney in the Baltimore area for a half-century, died Saturday of cancer at Carroll County General Hospital in Westminster. He was 79.

Services for Mr. Martin, a former president of the Baltimore County Bar Association, will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday at the Eline Funeral Home, 11824 Reisterstown Road in Reisterstown.

In the late 1940s, he served as secretary to the Baltimore County commissioners. He was a deputy county solicitor in the early 1950s and helped organize the local government's new legal department. He resigned in 1954 to run, unsuccessfully, for the House of Delegates.

Born in Upperco in northern Baltimore County, Mr. Martin was a 1931 graduate of Franklin Senior High School in Reisterstown.

He worked as an assistant at a city law firm while taking classes at the University of Baltimore law school and received his law degree in 1938.

Mr. Martin, who specialized in civil matters, opened his first law office in Towson and remained there for many years before relocating to Reisterstown in 1982. He retired in 1985.

He was president of the bar association in 1969 and served as president of the Maryland Trial Magistrates Association. He also was a member of the Reisterstown Democratic Club, Reisterstown Lions Club and Westminster Elks.

He is survived by his wife, Katherine F. Martin of Reisterstown; a son, Edwin L. Martin of Hagerstown; a daughter, Carol Ann Sterner of Finksburg; and a grandson.