Thanks for the suggestion. And although I still want something similar, my requirements changed a bit. So I'm now attaching the following:
SayHello.c (function for mex)
NameRandomizer.h (objc)(also in xcode project)
NameRandomizer.m (objc)(also in xcode project)
libMyLibrary.a (lib created with objc)
MyLibrary.zip (xcode project that creates lib)
with the above, I can
>> mex SayHello.c libMyLibrary.a
and produce a mex file that works. The C code in SayHello.c calls a "C-Signatured-Function" contained in the static library, that's written in ObjC.
There would be two really cool things to do. (1) not have to create a separate library just to add a simple wrapper.. although, really, that workaround isn't bad...
And (2) ideally, and I just ran across this idea today, is to be able to create a static library that references Octave libraries and so you can #import "mex.h" and have those available in there. That way a set of utility routines could be included via that library when creating mex files in the future. Written any language.
I think I'll actually make another posting about that, since it's different than the subject line of this post.