Alum Martha Farris Receives Honorary Doctorate

12/18/06

By Jennifer Sicking

BELTON -Martha Farris' granddaughter had a simple question when she learned her grandmother would be awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor on Dec. 16.

"One of my granddaughter's said, ‘Do we have to call you Dr. Grandmother now?'," Farris, a 1942 UMHB graduate, recounted with a laugh.

While that won't be a requirement for family members, or anyone else for that matter, Farris said the award from her beloved university surprised her.

She received the telephone call at the end of September from Dr. Jerry Bawcom, university president, telling her she had been selected for the honorary doctorate. Family members had flown in to visit that weekend, but she remains sure they were in on the surprise.

"I looked back and they were all grinning," she said. "I nearly dropped the phone. Dr. Bawcom said ‘are you there, are you alright?' I said ‘Did I hear what I think I heard?'"

She did and on that recent Saturday morning, she was hooded and presented with her honorary doctorate.

Although this isn't the first time Farris has been recognized for her accomplishments, it is one that means the most to her, she said.

"It would be the epitome," she said.

It's an award, she said, she doesn't deserve.

"I just feel so inadequate. I'm deeply grateful. I feel a great humility," she said. "I never thought it would happen to me. It happens to presidents and ministers."

Yet, university trustees and other officials think otherwise citing Farris' many accomplishments. Bawcom said Farris was recognized for her many years of service to her hometown and the university.

"She demonstrated her love of Floydada where she has lived most of her life," he said.

She taught at the Floydada Independent School District and served on the school board. The Study Club of Federated Women's Clubs named her Woman of the Year in 1950. The Floydada Chamber of Commerce also named her Citizen of the Year. After serving as a Girl Scout leader and as an area service chairperson, the Caprock Council of Girl Scouts presented her with the Woman of Distinction Award.

She also has served in the First Christian Church of Floydada for 55 years by teaching Sunday school and vacation Bible school, singing in the choir, planning the World Day of Prayer and playing the piano for the children's assembly. She also helped to convert a church building into a community day care center.

She has stayed true to the purple and gold of UMHB too. Bawcom said she placed the university at the top of her priority list because she wanted the students to experience what she did.

To that end, Farris served as the honorary chair of Challenge Beyond 2000, a successful capital and endowment fundraising campaign. She contributed generously to the Parker Academic Center and the Mayborn Campus Center through that campaign. She also established the Bess Bobo White Music Scholarship in memory of her mother, who was a 1916 graduate of UMHB.

It's a small repayment for what the university gave to her, she said.
"Whatever I've done for this university, I've done out of love," she said. "I know what it has done for me and I desire to do it for someone else."
Her appreciation of the university has grown through the years, she said.
"I look back on the years and I see the impact the people and the atmosphere had on the remainder of my life," she said. "Being in a Christian atmosphere with loving, giving people helped to mold my life."

She came to UMHB when she was 16 years after a life of following her Baptist preacher father through the South. She was born in Cameron but at the age of 1 her family moved to North Carolina. Before turning 16, she had lived in Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia and Florida before returning to Texas when she was a senior in high school.

It was natural to follow her mother to UMHB. Her mother not only graduated from the university in 1916, but also stayed for an additional year assisting a music teacher. Farris established the Bess Bobo White Music Scholarship in memory of her mother.

In speaking to the students and 169 graduates at the commencement, Farris said she planned to continue her support of the university.

"This day is not the end of the journey in giving and caring," she said. "It's just a pause to celebrate, then I'll pick up my bag and continue on the journey."