James G. Martin '57

James G. Martin served as governor of North Carolina from 1985 through 1993, following six terms as a member of the U.S. Congress, and before that, three terms as a Mecklenburg County (NC) commissioner. He was the first elected official to receive the Charles Lathrop Parsons Award, which is given by the American Chemical Society for outstanding public service by an American chemist. He was a corporate vice-president of Carolinas HealthCare System and later a member of the North Carolina government relations practice of McGuire Woods Consulting in Charlotte, NC.

Martin began his career as an educator, earning a Ph.D. in chemistry from Princeton University and later teaching chemistry at his alma mater (1957), Davidson College. He has served as a trustee of Davidson College. Dr. Martin’s recent public service has included conducting an analysis of courses at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to determine the extent of academic anomalies. The James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal in Raleigh, NC, is named for him.