You may know that Purdue’s College of Agriculture is a leading land grant in fostering international education and Extension projects. You may not know that Marshall Martin was teaching in South America well before international education projects were cool.

You may know that Purdue’s College of Agriculture seeks ag policy input from clientele. You may not know that it was Martin who facilitated those policy discussions with the Farm Policy Study Group, composed of about 40 Indiana farmers.

You may know that the Indiana Soybean Alliance built the Glass Barn at the Indiana State Fair to showcase the state’s soybean farmers. You may not know the role Martin played behind the scenes. About this same time, Martin became the first director of the Purdue University Soybean Center.

You may know that the Indiana Corn and Soybean Innovation Center at Purdue’s Agronomy Center for Research and Education is a state-of-the-art facility in today’s world of sensors. You may not know that Martin, along with former Purdue Ag Dean Karen Plaut, was a key facilitator, taking that project from an idea to reality.

You may know that some of Purdue’s residence halls switched to using high-oleic soybean cooking oil. You likely don’t know that Martin, the ISA and farmers like David Rodibaugh, Rensselaer, Ind., were key players in making that happen.

There are many things you likely don’t know about Marshall Martin. If it involved Purdue agriculture over the past 45 years, he likely played a role. This behind-the-scenes involvement in so many important projects earned him distinction as an Honorary Master Farmer this year. The award is sponsored by Indiana Prairie Farmer and the Purdue College of Agriculture.

His duties

After earning his bachelor’s degree in ag economics at Iowa State University, serving as a Methodist missionary and teaching vocational agriculture in Spanish in Bolivia for four years, Martin and his wife, Berdine, ventured to Purdue in 1971. He earned a master’s and doctorate degrees and joined the Purdue ag economics faculty after conducting research in Brazil in Portuguese for 18 months.

He never left Purdue, because he retired and still holds a professor emeritus position. Physically, however, he left dozens of times, with his list of overseas trips for projects taking up multiple typewritten pages.

“My research has focused on U.S. ag policy, with an emphasis on international trade and technology assessment, especially for pesticide use and biotechnology,” Martin says. “In Extension work, I focused on U.S. ag and trade policy, economic outlook, and biotechnology.”

He also found time to teach and was recognized as an outstanding teacher. For seven years, Martin was associate head of Purdue ag economics. Then Indiana Ag Leadership sought his talents, when he traveled with them to Mexico and Brazil. He became director of the Center for Agricultural Policy and Technology Assessment in the School of Agriculture in 1988. Later, he served as the senior associate director of agricultural research and graduate education and then assistant dean of agriculture, also serving as interim director of the Indiana Ag Experiment Station from 2017 to 2018.

Despite all these accomplishments, if you’ve encountered Martin one on one, it’s likely been at an Extension meeting or while he was assisting numerous ag groups, including ISA, Indiana Corn Marketing Council, Indiana Pork Producers, Ag Alumni Seed Improvement Association, Indiana Crop Improvement Association and the Indiana Wine Grape Council.

“I worked with many farmer-leaders as a liaison for Purdue through many groups,” Martin recalls. “I am still involved in a few groups, but I miss seeing so many people. That was an especially enjoyable and productive part of my career.”

Honorary Master Farmer at a glance

Justification: Marshall Martin has served Indiana agriculture, its farmers and ag commodity groups, and Purdue University through a career spanning more than 45 years.

Beginning: Martin grew up on a farm in Illinois and attended Iowa State University. His wife, Berdine, was an Illinois farm girl and followed the same path. They became Methodist missionaries, serving in Bolivia. Besides teaching vocational agriculture, Martin was director of a K-12 school. He obtained his master’s and doctorate degrees from Purdue and joined the ag economics faculty in 1976. Plus, he spent 18 months at the University of Sao Paulo in Piraciaba, Brazil, supervising graduate students.

Career: Martin served in key research, Extension and teaching roles in ag economics, and then fulfilled multiple duties in Purdue ag administration, becoming a key liaison between Department of Agriculture and commodity groups in Indiana. While assistant dean of agriculture, he managed about 250 Hatch, McIntire-Stennis and Animal Health research projects; USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture relations and reporting; and internal grant program management. He also had multistate research project oversight for about 100 faculty members. During his career, he was major professor for 41 graduate students, co-major professor for five graduate students and on advisory committees for over 30 graduate students. Martin was involved in more than 1,000 Extension meetings with a combined audience of over 20,000 people. In addition, he taught 2,000 students in various courses.

Family: The Martins have two children: Melanie Dodd, associate dean and full professor of pharmacy at the University of New Mexico, and Matthew Martin, chief marketing officer for Harris-Teeter, a grocery store chain owned by Kroger. They have four grandchildren.

Service and recognition: Martin’s list of honors fills pages. Most recently, he received the Indiana Crop Improvement Association Award in Recognition of Service to the seed industry and the Meritorious Service Award to Indiana’s pork industry, and was inducted into Purdue’s Book of Great Teachers. He received the Special Boilermaker Award from the Purdue Alumni Association, and the Certificate of Distinction from the Purdue Ag Alumni Association.

Notable: Martin maintains a collection of full-size tractors, plus a collection of toy tractors. He displays tractors at the Half Century of Progress Show and on tractor drives with farm broadcaster Max Armstrong.