The Council of Learning Assistance and Developmental Education Associations (CLADEA) is pleased to announce that the CLADEA Executive Board, which includes leaders from CLADEA's member organizations, has approved a book project honoring the memory of Dr. Martha Maxwell. This book will be the first of its kind—honoring Martha's vision featuring chapters from the CLADEA Fellows, and is intended to inform postsecondary educators about the most outstanding work within our learning assistance and developmental education profession.Dr. Jeanne Higbee has graciously agreed to serve as editor of the book without compensation (and CLADEA has formally approved Higbee as editor), and Dr. Hunter Boylan has offered the expertise of the National Center for Developmental Education (NCDE) to publish the book.
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After several drafts of writing this tribute that included some humorous encounters, I have done my best to keep it short and to the point… in honor of Martha who in my experience, was short and to the point.
My relationship with Martha over the last two decades consisted of short conversations, emails, and insight rather than flowery conversations over tea or a good meal. I could always count on her talking about the book she was working on for a minute or two, and then spending several minutes asking me how I was, where I was, what I was doing and somehow ending the interaction by asking how my book was coming along. I remember finally having the chutzpah to ask Martha at a conference years ago, what made her think I should write a book? "Cbecause you have something different to say. What you have to say makes sense and others should hear it." The shade of red I turned and the sounds stumbling out of my mouth were nothing compared to the enormous grin that had just circled my heart two times over. MARTHA MAXWELL thought I had something of value to say, to add to the profession. And she wasn't saying that to me to be nice! (During my entire relationship with Martha, she had always been honest, sincere, to the point, and never said anything to me just to be nice.)

The first time Martha showed up to one of my three hour conference presentations I wondered what she was doing there; if maybe the workshop she wanted to attend was down the hall. For the first ten minutes, she was the only person I kept seeing out of the corner of my eye. I have no idea what I was talking about up until then but I do remember getting the nod of agreement from Dr. Maxwell on the key points I was about to cover in the presentation. Her simple nod shut off my sweat glands for the rest of the workshop. Martha came up to me afterwards, thanked me for the presentation and said something to the effect of "good job" and "do write that book" and then shuffled out.

Whoever said that a few words couldn't make a difference in a person's life, didn't meet my Dr. Maxwell. Whether it was at conferences or through phone calls and emails, Martha over the years never failed to ask how I was doing and how my book was coming along. She would pick up our conversation from wherever we left off and engage me in short yet meaningful dialogue: Dialogue that was long enough to let me know that she believed in me and what I had to offer students and colleagues in this field. Years later, I am still passing on that gift to students (and now colleagues)… the power and compassion of believing in them until they fully believe in themselves. Finally, with the assistance of a colleague and the words of Martha reverberating in my mind, I garnered the courage to publish my second project (14 years in the making), The Tutor Revue. It was a project that complimented her book "When Tutor Meets Student."

 Now it was my turn to show the teacher what her student had learned. Martha received the first copyV complete with an inscription and heartfelt gratitude. Our relationship had come full circle.

There are very few people in my professional life that I would consider a mentor, however, Martha Maxwell is one. You could say, she was even my hero. I will miss her honesty, wisdom, fortitude, foresight, and dry sense of humor. Most of all, I will miss her.

Karin E. Winnard
San José State University, CA
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I was indeed very excited to see Martha receive the NCLCA
Lifetime Achievement Award at the recent conference. As a learning center
professional, I am very thankful for Martha's early ground-breaking work in the
field of developmental education, tutoring, and especially learning assistance
centers. I have often referred to her helpful passages of text in the course of
my studies. It was nice to see Martha recognized among her distinguished
colleagues for her fine efforts, and I very much enjoyed this special tribute."

.....Laura Mattingly

Midlands Technical College, Columbia, SC

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