Lynn Morley Martin

Political career

She was born in Evanston, Illinois, and served as a member of the Winnebago County Board before she served in the Illinois House of Representatives, Illinois Senate, and the U.S. House of Representatives. In the U.S. House, she was vice chair of the House Republican Conference. She served as U.S. Secretary of Labor from 1991 to 1993. She is a member of Gamma Phi Beta Sorority.

Martin taught in the Rockford Public School District prior to and including her time as a local representative.

A loyalist to the Reagan Administration, she assisted then-Vice President George H.W. Bush with his debate preparation for the 1984 Vice Presidential Candidate Debate against Geraldine Ferraro. Bush touted her as a possible running mate in his 1988 presidential campaign, though he eventually selected Indiana Senator Dan Quayle.

In 1990 Martin ran for the U.S. Senate in Illinois against Democratic incumbent Paul Simon. She was considered a formidable challenger, but her campaign floundered — in ads, Martin poked fun at Simon's trademark bow-tie, but the humorous ad campaign was seen by some as petty and mean-spirited. Simon's popularity proved too much to overcome, and he won with 65 percent of the vote, carrying all but two counties in the state; Edwards County in the southeast and McHenry County outside Chicago in the heart of the district Martin represented for most of the 1980s.

George H.W. Bush tapped Martin to be U.S. Secretary of Labor in his Cabinet when Elizabeth Dole resigned to become president of the American Red Cross.

From 1993 to 1999, she was a professor at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University and Chair of the Council for the Advancement of Women and Advisor to the firm of Deloitte & Touche LLP for Deloitte's internal human resources and minority advancement matters. Martin also served together with British politician Shirley Williams (Baroness Williams of Crosby) as U.N. Special Representative to the Former Yugoslavia during the civil war.

In 1995, she tested the waters to run for the 1996 Republican presidential nomination but decided against it after concluding there was insufficient support for her candidacy. She participated in a Republican primary debate in New Hampshire on New Hampshire local television. Arguably, she would have been the most viable woman to run for the Republican presidential nomination in history to that date.[1]

Martin has been a director on the boards of AT&T Corporation, Ryder System, Inc., Dreyfus Funds, Constellation Energy Group and Procter & Gamble. Martin served as Chairman of the Board of the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.

Awards

Lynn Morley Martin was inducted as a Laureate of The Lincoln Academy of Illinois and awarded the Order of Lincoln (the State’s highest honor) by the Governor of Illinois in 2000 in the area of Religion.