The first alumnus to serve as President of Eastern Kentucky University, Robert Richard Martin presided over a period of unprecedented growth for is Alma Mater. In Martin's sixteen year tenure, the University grew from an institution devoted mainly to teacher training to a multi-purpose educational complex serving over four times the number of students who had been enrolled when Martin was inaugurated. Born on December 26, 1910, near McKinney in Lincoln County, Martin was one of eight children in the family of Frank and Annie Peek Martin. He matriculated to Eastern in 1930, paying his way through the then-Teachers College by raising tobacco crops and working in a dormitory. A history and geography major, Martin received his first taste of an Eastern presidency when his fellow seniors chose him to head the Class of 1934. A teaching position in history took him to Sardis High School in Mason County following his graduation. In subsequent years he served as principal of Sardis Elementary School and the Mason County schools of Orangeburg High and Woodleigh Junior High. Martin used his summers to attend the University of Kentucky, where he earned the M.A. degree just prior to the outbreak of World War II. Forty-one months of service as a weather observer-forcaster for the U.S. Army preceded Martin's work as an auditor of the State Department of Education. In 1948 he became head of the Bureau of Administration and Finance. While associated with the Bureau, Martin took a year's leave of absence to earn a doctorate in education at Columbia University's Teachers College (1951), where he did extensive research in the area of school finance. Upon his return to Kentucky, Dr. Martin devoted much of his energy toward working with the committee which drafted the Foundation Program for Education law enacted by the 1954 General Assembly. Election as State Superintendent of Public Instruction followed in 1955 and then an appointment as Commissioner of Finance in December, 1959, by Governor Bert T. Combs, whose gubernatorial campaign he had directed. Following the mandatory retirement of Dr. William F. O'Donnell, Martin became Eastern's sixth President on July 1, 1960. Under Martin's leadership Eastern achieved university status on July 1, 1966. Dr. Martin did not limit his service to education at Eastern. In 1971 he assumed the presidency of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, an organization he also served as member of the board of directors and chairman of the committee on federal programs. Foreign travel also loomed large on the Martin agenda with visits to Yugoslavia, the People's Republic of China and England and Northern Europe for the purpose of analysis of educational systems in those areas. Nor has Martin limited his interests to education. The undergraduate history major has maintained that interest through membership in the Filson Club, the Lexington Civil War Roundtable, the Kentucky Historical Society and the Fort Boonesborough State Park Association. Civic organization membership includes Masons, Shriners and Rotary Clubs. The termination of Martin's tenure as President of the University in 1976 marked a short hiatus in public service. In 1977 the president emeritus won election to represent the Madison-Garrard-Mercer district in the state Senate. In addition, Dr. Martin and his wife, the former Anne Hoge of Frankfort, continue their civic involvement in the Richmond area, their leadership role in the First Presbyterian Church and their close connection with Eastern Kentucky University. Author: Charles Hay