A ‘Biddy’ leader takes on a big job

By Darrell Laurant

Published: July 9, 2008

Hardly anyone starts out in life with the goal of becoming a college president. Biddy Martin certainly didn’t.

At the time she graduated from Brookville High School in 1969, she was a good all-around student who loved to read and held the all-time scoring record for the Bees’ girls basketball team.

“I had no idea what I wanted to do next,” she said.

Now, she does. She wants to be the chancellor at the University of Wisconsin, the school from which she received a graduate degree in German literature more than 20 years ago. And obviously, the feeling is mutual.

Martin was named in late May to head up the 41,000-student university, becoming the second female UW president (Donna Shalala, later Secretary of Health & Human Services under President Clinton, was the first).

“I applied primarily because I love the school and I love Madison,” Martin said in a phone conversation earlier this week, “but the further along I got in the search process, the more excited I became.”

It was time for some good news for the Martin family of Timber Lake, for whom the last two decades have served up a succession of tragedies.

In 1995, Martin’s brother Carter — a volunteer fireman — was drowned by the wall of water that swept across U.S. 460 when the Timber Lake dam broke. He had been trying to get to a car that was partially submerged in Buffalo Creek to see if it was still occupied (ironically, it wasn’t).

The day before he died, Carter Martin had filed papers to apply for a seat on the Campbell County School Board. His mother, Boolie, was appointed in his place. She was also active in a community-wide effort to refill the lake behind a new dam.

A few years later, Carter’s brother Eddie — head football coach at George Washington High School in Danville — collapsed and died of cardiac arrest.

Boolie Martin passed away last year after a lengthy period of declining health that caused her to resign her School Board position.

“I miss all of them,” Biddy Martin said. “I wish they were all still here.”

Why Biddy? Why Boolie?

“All of the women in my family had nicknames,” Martin said. “My grandmother was Buck.”

Part of it may have been to get past the confusion of having two Carolyn Arthur Martins in the same household.

“I just think of it as a good conversation-starter,” she added. “People always ask me where ‘Biddy’ comes from.”

It is, in fact, short (no pun intended) for “Little Biddy,” because Martin was apparently a tiny child.

She’s still only 5-foot-4, but her new position places her high among among the ranks of other famous Brookville graduates — like country singer Phil Vassar (who played under Eddie Martin on the Bee football team), Brandon Inge of the Detroit Tigers, San Francisco 49ers’ punter Mike Barr and, going back a lot farther, the Rev. Jerry Falwell.

Martin got her undergraduate degree from William & Mary and her master’s from Muhlenberg College.

“I started out being interested in literature,” she said, “and especially in German literature.

That led to an interest in the language itself.”

So Martin went to Germany to study and live. Typically, though, her approach to becoming bilingual was total immersion, not politely academic.

“I got a job working at a nursing home there,” she said, “because I wanted to learn German as it was spoken by people who weren’t academics.”

In the end, she learned it well, albeit “with a bit of an American southern accent.”

After earning her Ph.D at Wisconsin, she taught there for several years before moving to Cornell. In 2000, after five years of teaching German and women’s studies there, she was named Cornell’s provost (senior academic advisor).

“The big change will be going from a private institution (Cornell) to a public one (Wisconsin),” Martin said. “At a public university, you have to interact with so many more people.”

Like the state legislators who funnel money to her school.

“There are a lot of people who want to meet me,” she said, “and a lot of people I want to meet.”

For the moment, however, Martin has a foot in both jobs. She won’t officially leave Ithaca for Madison until the first of September, so she’s found herself commuting back and forth.

“Colleges are in a position to offer society a lot,” she said, “especially in the areas of research and economic development. And it’s important that they bond with the community, which Wisconsin has always done.”

Martin also put in a good word for the Badgers’ athletic program, one of the best in the Big Ten.

“UW athletics is an enormous source of pride for the entire state,” she said.

She may even catch a women’s basketball game or two this winter.