Martin Methodist College

Martin Methodist College is a private, coeducational, liberal arts college located in Pulaski, Tennessee, and affiliated with the United Methodist Church. For many years it was a junior college but is now a full, four-year baccalaureate institution providing more than thirty academic majors. One notable alumnus is the late former United States Senator Ross Bass. The school has several intercollegiate sports programs and is a member of the NAIA. Other notable graduates include John Ogiltree, a Canadian baseball pitcher, and Tenywa Bonseu, a Ugandan soccer player. In 2012, James Justice, a 5'9" basketball guard with a 52" vertical leap, won the ESPN College Slam Dunk Contest and was later drafted by the Harlem Globetrotters.Martin Methodist College is named after Thomas Martin, who originally intended to construct a school for girls in Giles County. He financed the project through a gift of $30,000 in his will of 1870. His legacy was the fulfillment of the dream of his daughter Victoria, who before her death at age twenty asked her father to set up such an institution. Thomas Martin, son of a Methodist minister, was born in 1799 and moved to Pulaski Tennessee, as a young man. Unusual business acumen and knowledge of the industry soon made him a millionaire. He was a friend of President James K Polk from nearby Columbia, Tennessee.He served as president of the Nashville and Decatur Railroad, president of a local savings bank, an influential political figure in the region, and a loyal member of the Methodist Church in Pulaski. The college moved to its current location in 1875 on seven acres purchased from Governor John C. Brown for $16,000. For many years the college was operated as a four-year boarding college for women, with an elementary division for the children and young people of Pulaski. Many persons of influence are numbered among its illustrious graduates. Its first building stood near the site of Martin Hall. As the college grew, new facilities were added and the site of the campus expanded. In 1908, an agreement was reached whereby the Board of Trustees transferred the property of the college into the hands of the Tennessee Conference of The Methodist Episcopal Church, South.