Former University of Arkansas President Jim Martin dies at 84

Former Vice President for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, James “Jim” Martin, died Saturday (June 3) at his home in Decatur, Ala. He was 84 years old.

Martin, who led the Division of Agriculture from 1975-1980, went on to become president of the University of Arkansas from 1980-1984, during which time he created the chancellorship position. He had previously served as a faculty member at both the University of Maryland and Oklahoma State University, and as dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Virginia Tech from 1968-1975.

Rick Cartwright, interim associate vice president for agriculture-extension, said in a news release that Martin arrived at the Division of Agriculture at a time when public interest in agriculture and the environment meant addressing many concerns that had previously been downplayed.

“Jim Martin marshaled the Division of Agriculture through some interesting times,” Cartwright said in the release. “The environmental movement was at its start and the question arose for agriculture: Can the way we have been doing things be sustained? Can it co-exist with the environmental movement? This was all at the beginning of the sustainable agriculture movement.”

In 1984, Martin left the University of Arkansas System to return to his alma mater, Auburn University, where he served as the university’s 14^th president until retiring in 1992.

Martin earned a bachelor’s degree in agricultural management from Auburn in 1954, before earning a master’s degree in agricultural economics from North Carolina State in 1956 and a doctorate in agricultural economics from Iowa State in 1962. Martin also served two years in the U.S Armed Forces between earning his graduate degrees.