Morals Were Central to Former BGS President’s Life
Originally printed in the Dec. 28, 2003 edition of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
By Megan Twohey

Thomas Robert (T. R.) Martin, the former dean of Marquette University’s College of Business Administration, died of pneumonia at West Allis Memorial Hospital on Dec. 25, 2003. He was 83.

Martin served as president of Beta Gamma Sigma from 1974-76.

While serving as dean, a job he held from 1962 to 1978, Martin made the College of Business and Administration fully accredited by AACSB by increasing the size and quality of the faculty and making other changes, said Thomas Martin, one of Martin’s five children. After stepping down as dean, Martin went on to become one of the first professors at Marquette to teach classes devoted to the study of ethics.

Despite his success, Martin always wished he had accomplished more.

“He was a man who had tremendous integrity and demanded a lot of himself,” Thomas Martin said. “He enjoyed the success he had. But he also was frustrated that he couldn’t achieve more for the school and university as a whole.”

Martin, who was known as Bob, was born in Emmetsburg, Iowa, to an engineer and homemaker. He left home in 1939 to study business at Marquette, where he earned his bachelors degree. After graduating in 1942, he joined the U.S. Marine Corps and went on to serve in the Pacific during World War II. He earned his MBA at Harvard Business School and his Ph.D. from Stanford University.