Martin Professorship established in Department of Mathematics

December 5, 2008

November 6 was a big day for LeRoy Martin. Not only did he receive the prestigious Distinguished Alumnus Award from the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, but he also learned that he was being honored with the establishment of the LeRoy B. Martin Jr. Distinguished Professorship, the first named professorship in the Department of Mathematics.

The professorship was made possible by a gift from Martin’s friend and former student, James H. Goodnight (BS ’65 Applied Mathematics, MS ’68 Experimental Statistics, PhD ’72 Statistics), chief executive officer of SAS. Goodnight has a long history of service and generosity to NC State and PAMS. He was a faculty member in the Department of Statistics from 1972 to 1976 where he and three NC State colleagues created SAS - now a world leader in business intelligence software - and he and his wife, Ann, have made substantial financial contributions to the university over the years.

Goodnight’s reasons for making this particular gift go all the way back to his freshman year—when he sat in the classroom of a young assistant professor, named LeRoy Martin.

“LeRoy was a great teacher, and he inspired me to continue in applied math,” Goodnight said. “After 47 years of knowing and working with him, I felt it was time to recognize his academic achievements and his years of service to this great university by naming a distinguished professorship for him.”

Martin earned a master’s degree in mathematics from NC State in 1952.  After earning a PhD from Harvard and working for six years at IBM, he returned to campus in 1961 to join the Department of Mathematics. Over the next half century, he would go on to become a beloved teacher and widely respected researcher and administrator.

In announcing the Martin Professorship at the 2008 PAMS Awards Dinner, Dean Dan Solomon remarked on its relevance to both past and present.

“The establishment of this professorship is a wonderfully appropriate tribute to LeRoy’s legacy,” Solomon said. “Endowed professorships like this are among the most significant awards we bestow upon tenured faculty. We use these awards to recruit the brightest faculty from around the country to NC State—much the same as we recruited a bright young man from IBM back in 1961—a man who would spend the better part of the next half century exemplifying excellence in teaching, research and leadership.”

In addition to the generosity of Jim Goodnight, the LeRoy B. Martin Jr. Distinguished Professorship, a $1 million endowment, was made possible by matching funds from the Spangler Foundation, the UNC Distinguished Professors Endowment Trust Fund and an anonymous matching gift to the PAMS Foundation.

To contribute to this or any other endowment in PAMS, or for more information on establishing an endowment of your own, please contact the Office of College Advancement at pams_dev@ncsu.edu or 919-515-3462.