17 saint francis magazine | spring 2025 Nothing stirred a young Jane Martin quite like a good story. How fitting, then, that she grew up in a place associated with a storytelling touchpoint—Mount Airy, North Carolina. Her hometown inspired the fictional Mayberry at the center of the ubiquitous 1960s sitcom, “The Andy Griffith Show.” “Mount Airy was a quiet, small community. But one of the things that’s interesting about it is that we had a really good school system,” Martin said. “I loved school. I was very excited about school. Obviously. I never left school, right?” Indeed, Martin invested a lifetime in education. She taught hundreds of students the power of storytelling to stir action and change lives. In 32 years as a professor at the University of Saint Francis, Martin made sure communications, public relations and film students felt welcomed and accepted, challenged and inspired. The fact so many Saint Francis alumni went on to career success is a tribute to her mentorship and friendship. “I always tell them, ‘You have me for as long as you want to keep me. If you want to continue this journey, we can,’” she said. Martin, who announced her retirement from Saint Francis this spring, learned the value of lifelong connections from her mentor and friend Dr. Marian Love at Lenoir-Rhyne University, “an intimidating and powerful force in my life.” Martin tells the story of her first semester at Lenoir-Rhyne. She was in a “Great Books” class where some of her peers demonstrated a more extensive vocabulary; she struggled to keep up. “They were very confident, and I was not very confident,” Martin said. Love switched her to a similar class full of senior citizens. Martin’s new classmates welcomed her, sought out her ideas and raised her confidence. “It was cool to be in a room with people who were excited that you were there. That taught me a lot about making sure everyone is welcome in the class,” Martin said. “And I flourished in that setting. Dr. Marian Love didn’t fix it for me. She fixed it with me.” As a professor, Martin likewise challenged her students to pursue high standards because she believed they could reach them. “I don’t believe any teacher had more of an impact than Jane Martin. Her passion for film got me to think about filmmaking at a much deeper level, both in its process and its meaning. Her lessons enhanced my own storytelling dramatically, and she is the reason that I am a teacher,” said Assistant Professor of Animation Patrick Riggle (BA ’03, MA ’14). After a stint in production and programming in cable television, Martin’s journey at Saint Francis began in 1993 as program director for Communication. It would be nearly impossible to list all the courses she taught, programs she directed, clubs she advised, innovations she championed and students she inspired. In 1997, Martin became the first non-tenured faculty and first woman to win the Saint Francis Teaching Excellence and Leadership Award. Seventeen years later, she remained just as influential, winning the LeePoxy Award for Teaching Excellence. She influenced students who became alumni, and those alumni then influenced others. And now she’s a professor emerita. “Our students are going through a time where they are deciding who they are, who they want to be in the world, how they think about the world—it’s a lot of responsibility as a professor and a lot of joy,” Martin said. “The best thing is seeing where they go and what they do.” Example? She has a story, of course. “I had a young man in class who did a report on Disney’s ‘Moana,’ and he stood up in front of the class and talked about what the film meant to him,” Martin said. “He said it was the first time he saw someone like him on the screen and how powerful that was to him.” The supervising animator on “Moana” was none other than Saint Francis alumnus—and former Martin student— Adam Green. “It was like a whole full circle of Adam being a part of this young person’s journey to be recognized and feel seen in this world,” Martin said. “And I was like, ‘Yeah!’” As Martin often says, “We teach people who change the world.” Photography by Steve Vorderman “Jane not only taught me the skills I needed to succeed but inspired and challenged me creatively. She provided me with mentorship and guidance at a time when I needed it most.” Tony Didier (BA ’00), Director of Alumni Relations 17 saint francis magazine | spring 2025
