MARTIN,
R
MARTIN,
R, obert Richard d. 29 Nov 1997 Born in McKinney, Lincoln County, Ky., on December 27, 1910. State Official, University President. University of Kentucky, M.A., 1940. As the sixth President of Eastern Kentucky University, he led the school during a period of unprecedented development in his 16-year tenure, beginning in 1960. The university increased its enrollment five-fold, and added some $110 million in buildings and other facilities. More significant, however, was the proliferation of major fields of study where program majors were increased nearly ten-fold from the 26 available in 1959. He retired in 1976. He earned the B.A. degree from Eastern in 1934, the M.A. degree from UK in 1940, and the Ed.D. from Columbia University Teachers College, in 1951. He was President of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities in 1971 and also served as Chairman of its committee on federal programs and as a member of its board of directors. He was a member of the U. S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare's Advisory Council on Developing Institutions. He toured Yugoslavia in the spring of 1967 for the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. In 1975, he was part of an AASCU delegation touring Red China. Recipient of a Danforth Foundation grant, he spent 13 weeks of 1971 touring England and Europe, studying public institutions of higher education. He served on the executive committee of the Southern Regional Education Board in 1968, and on the board's advisory council on instructional television. His interest in new teaching media placed him also on the Kentucky Authority for Educational Television. A member of the Filson Club and a Director of the Kentucky Civil War Round Table, he has served the Kentucky Historical Society as President and as a member of its executive committee. As President of the Fort Boonesborough State Park Association, he led that organization in its promotion of the restored fort at Fort Boonesborough State Park. In 1964, he received the Kentucky Press Association's "Kentuckian of the Year Award." Two years later Governor Edward Breathitt presented him the governor's Distinguished Service Award for "his contribution to higher education." The Joint Alumni Council of Kentucky awarded him its first Service Award, and he received the Department of the Army's Outstanding Civilian Service Award for his support of the Reserve Officers Training Corps program. His first job in education, following graduation from Eastern in 1934, was as a history teacher at Sardis High School in Mason County, and he served the next three years as principal of three other schools in the county. For 41 months, he was a weather observer-forecaster in the U.S. Army, and following his discharge he was an auditor of the State Department of Education, serving until 1948, when he was named head of its Bureau of Administration and Finance. He took a year's leave to pursue a doctorate in education at Columbia. Upon his return to Kentucky, he worked with the committee that drafted the Foundation Program for Education law, was elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction in 1955, and appointed Commissioner of Finance in 1959. Recipient of the first "Outstanding Alumnus Award" at Eastern (1956), he was active in a number of organizations, including Masons, Shriners and Rotary Club. A Phi Delta Kappan, he had served as a member of the Southern Regional Education Board since 1956. He chaired the United Cerebral Palsy fund campaign in Kentucky in 1964, and in 1978 was State Organizational Chairman for the re-election of Senator Walter Huddleston, after successfully running for the State Senate himself the previous year and serving in the 1978 General Assembly. He also has authored a number of articles for various publications on school administration. Robert Richard Martin was named to the Hall of Distinguished Alumni in February, 1965. He died 29 Nov 1997 in Madison County, KY (G.M.) June 06, 2005 – Sunday