Alexander Martin

Academia In 1846, Martin supervised the Preston Academy in Kingwood, West Virginia. While in Clarksburg, he spent six years as the principal of the Northwest Virginia Academy.

In 1865, Martin was unanimously elected by West Virginia University's board of trustees to serve as its first president. Martin developed the university's first rules, regulations, course of study, and professorships and the school grew rapidly under his leadership. Under Martin's leadership, the university expanded from 30 acres to 120, from two buildings to nine, and from six professors to over fifty. He also grew the school's endowment from $120,000 to over $1 million. He resigned as president in 1889, but remained at DePauw as chair of systemic theology until his death from pneumonia on December 16, 1893.