Journal of Fluency Disorders
27 (2002) 87–91
Tribute
Richard R. Martin—an appreciation
of his career
Roger J. Ingham
a,*
, Gerald M. Siegel
b
a
Department of Speech and Hearing Science, University of California,
Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
b
Department of Communication Disorders, University of Minnesota,
Minneapolis, MN 58701, USA
Received 18 November 2001; accepted 22 November 2001
On October 26 2001, Dr. Richard R. Martin died at his home in Tucson, Arizona,
where he and Glenda, his wife of 47 years, lived following his retirement from the
University of Minnesota in 1993. Besides his wife he leaves daughter, Corinne and
husband Tom White; grandchildren, Avery and Campbell of Arlington Heights,
IL; son, Douglas and wife Julie Martin of Tempe, AZ. He was preceded in death
by his son, Jeffrey Glen Martin. Martin was born in 1931 and was a Fellow of
the American Speech–Language–Hearing Association. In 1985, he received the
ASHA Council of Editors Award for “meritorious articles published in the field
of speech–language and hearing”. Martin will be best remembered for a program
of behavioral research at the University of Minnesota that opened new avenues of
stuttering treatment, especially for children, and for innovations in measurement
that continue to influence current approaches to stuttering therapy and research.
Martin knew disability in a very personal sense. Shortly after he entered college,
and progressively throughout his adult life, he suffered from diabetes. Especially
from the early 1970s onward, he endured lengthy periods of partial and com-
plete blindness, the amputation of his right leg, and the crippling of his hands,
and yet some of the most productive periods of his career occurred during the
most debilitating phases of this illness. He persevered, rarely complaining, al-
most defiantly avoiding any special consideration in teaching or conducting his re-
search. His devotion and tenacity were an inspiration to his colleagues and students.
Martin was committed to data driven, empirical knowledge, rather than theoretical
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-805-961-2776; fax: +1-805-893-4431.
E-mail address: rjingham@speech.ucsb.edu (R.J. Ingham).
0094-730X/02/$ – see front matter © 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.
PII:S0094-730X(01)00113-9