Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
Parallel form(s) of name
Martin, E. A.
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
Ethel Austin was born on July 14, 1893, in Storm Lake, Iowa, to George and Evaline Austin. Her family moved to Brookings, South Dakota, in 1902, where she completed grade school and high school. She graduated from South Dakota State College (SDSC) in 1916, later earning a second bachelor’s degree (1919) and a master’s degree (1923) from Columbia University. In 1955, SDSC awarded her an honorary Doctor of Science degree.
Martin began her career teaching high school in Faulkton, South Dakota (1916–1918), and later taught home economics and nutrition at several institutions, including Texas State College, the University of Illinois (1923–1924), the University of Chicago (1925–1929), and Northwestern University (1957–1959). From 1929 to 1951, she served as director of nutrition services for the National Dairy Council, where she launched its research program and nutrition education initiatives.
An accomplished author, Martin published numerous technical works and co-authored three university-level textbooks, including Nutrition in Action and Nutrition Education in Action. In 1949, she was the only woman delegate among ten U.S. representatives to the 11th International Dairy Congress in Stockholm. She also served on the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Advisory Committee (1950–1960) and held leadership roles in the Chicago Nutrition Association and Chicago Board of Health.
In retirement, Martin remained actively engaged in advancing nutrition education. She and her husband, Dr. Edward Moss Martin, established an endowment for the Ethel Austin Martin Chair of Human Nutrition at South Dakota State University to support visiting professorships and lectureships. Her goal was to promote a multidisciplinary understanding of nutrition.
Dr. Edward Martin, a civic reform advocate in Illinois, passed away in 1985. Ethel Austin Martin died on September 11, 1993, in Chicago at the age of 100. On her 99th birthday, she was named a Fellow of the Society for Nutrition Education.