Boyd A. Martin - Honorary Degree Recipient 1997
The following was read during the commencement ceremony:
Boyd A. Martin, educator, administrator and peacekeeper. We honor you, a most eminent alumnus, faculty member and administrator, for your dedication to enhancing the study of peace in public and higher education.
You and your wife, Grace, donated your life savings to create the Martin Institute for Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution, dedicated to the study of peace and the discovery of alternatives to conflict, one of the first programs of its kind in the world. You have dedicated your life to fostering world peace and laid the foundation for the practical study of peace and supported the development of public school curricula related to peace study issues.
You joined the faculty of the Department of Political Science in 1938, having graduated two years earlier. You served 12 consecutive terms as chair of the William Edgar Borah Foundation for the Outlawry of War Committee, which continues to coordinate the Borah Symposium for the “ongoing discussion of the causes of war and solutions for peace.”
You were appointed dean of the College of Letters and Science at the age of 44, one of the youngest deans in the country. You retired as Borah Distinguished Professor after serving 35 years at the University of Idaho. Among your many awards and achievements, you have received the University of Idaho Alumni Hall of Fame in 1976 and the Alumni Association Distinguished Idahoan Award, the association’s most prestigious honor, in 1991.
Today, your self-styled retirement is spent coordinating and encouraging the institute’s sole purpose — global peace. You have written 70 courses for future graduate students at the institute, contributed your life savings to the study of peace, and continued to dream of an ideal world where peace can indeed be a reality.
In recognition of a lifetime of commitment to world peace, the University of Idaho is proud to confer upon you, a most distinguished native son, the degree of Doctor of Administrative Science.
Dr. Martin passed away in 1998, age 86.