Dr. Yvonne Martin gave $7 million to Lake Forest College's chemistry department in honor of her late husband, Professor William Martin. The gift creates an endowed professorship, an equipment fund and a student research fund.

William Martin taught organic chemistry and biochemistry at the college for five decades before his death in 2024. He taught more than 2,000 students and directed more than 65 senior theses, according to the college.

The donation establishes three new funds: the William B. Martin Endowed Professorship in Chemistry, the William B. Martin Equipment Fund and the William B. and Yvonne C. Martin Student Research Fund. It also continues support for the existing Martin Scholarship Endowment.

"Bill and I benefitted greatly from our education at a small liberal arts college whose fees our parents could not afford," Yvonne Martin said in the college's announcement. "We feel strongly that such an opportunity should be made to as many young students as possible."

Dawn Wiser, a faculty member since 1998, has been named the first William B. Martin Associate Professor of Chemistry. Wiser earned her PhD from Colorado State University and was a postdoctoral research fellow at Exxon Chemical Company.

Wiser said Professor Martin shaped her approach to teaching. When she asked him for advice, he invariably responded: "What is best for the student?"

Yvonne Martin built her own career in chemistry over 40 years at Abbott and AbbVie, where she helped pioneer computational chemistry for drug discovery. She was a founder of the International Quantitative Structure Activity Relationship & Modeling Society (QSAR).

When she was about to start college in the fall of 1954, her parents realized they were $50 short of what they needed. Carleton College set up a 100-hour work-study position that covered the gap. "Financial aid allowed me to attend Carleton," she said.

The Martin Student Research Fund is already supporting lab work on campus. Associate Professor and chemistry department chair Nilam Shah said the fund gives students flexibility that traditional grants do not, allowing them to explore a variety of research areas rather than a single project.

One example: students in Shah's lab used Martin fund support to launch an Alzheimer's research project after Shah taught them a technique originally aimed at art conservation.

The equipment fund will help the department maintain and expand its inventory of professional-grade instruments. Students in the chemistry labs still use a High-Performance Liquid Chromatography system that Professor Martin acquired, the college said.

President Mike Sosulski called the gift "a powerful investment in the future of Lake Forest College" in the announcement.

Yvonne Martin recalled a story that captured her husband's emphasis on hands-on training. A Lake Forest graduate applied for a job in California, and the company representative called Professor Martin, skeptical the graduate could operate the equipment on her résumé.

"Bill told him, 'She didn't lie. They learn how to use this in our lab.' She was hired," Yvonne Martin said.

Peter Cirbo, the 2025–26 Martin scholarship recipient and a former Lake Forest soccer captain, is now studying engineering and playing soccer at Washington University in St. Louis.