Soon an ISU residence hall will bear the name of a couple who provided students with more than a roof over their heads.

Union Drive Suite Building Two will soon be christened Archie and Nancy Martin Hall after the Board of Regents approved the name last week. The dedication will occur in November.

“This family has basically been ignored,” said Joanna Courteau, president of the Archie A. and Nancy C. Martin Foundation. “In 75 years, no one has given them official thanks, and now we’re finally doing it.”

Thomas Hill, vice president for student affairs, submitted a proposal that Union Drive Suite Building Two be named after the Martins after he was contacted by the foundation. Hill said the proposal was fitting because the Martins were an important resource to students of color.

“Their role was very critical,” he said. “They provided a number of functions that the institution wasn’t ready to provide at that time.”

Iowa State’s Advisory Committee on the Naming of Buildings and Streets approved the recommendation because the couple made a significant contribution to students, said Mark Chidister, chairman of the committee.

“In this case, there was unanimous support,” he said. “The entire committee, myself included, were very enthused because of the contribution they made to African-American students attending Iowa State.”

Archie and Nancy Martin moved to Ames from Georgia in 1915 to search for a better life, said the Martins’ granddaughter, Pauline Martin of Ames. Archie worked for the railroad while Nancy cooked for a fraternity and a doctor.

In Iowa State’s early years, students of color were not permitted to live in the residence halls. After seeing the need for housing, Pauline said the Martins opened their home to black students.

But the Martins provided more than just a place to sleep, she said. They served as a surrogate family. Nancy cooked meals for the students, and the couple kept students focused on the reason they were at Iowa State — to pursue an education, Pauline said.

“Education was just important to them,” she said. “They knew that was the way to get ahead.”

Through her work with the foundation, Pauline has spoken with students who lived with her grandparents.

“They talked about how strict they were,” she said. “They had to study, but they appreciated that. They got lots of encouragement.”

She doesn’t remember much about the students because her parents didn’t want her bothering them, she said.

One memory she does have centers or the old upright piano that graced a corner of her grandparents’ living room, where students gathered to relax, Pauline said. “There was a tune, a classical thing, one of them was always playing,” she said.

Her grandparents’ strictness paid off, as most of the students who stayed in the Martin home went on to earn their doctorates and accomplish great things, Pauline said.

One student, Samuel Massie, worked on the Manhattan Project while living with the Martins and earned a Lifetime Achievement Award from the White House Initiative in 1988. George Washington Carver — Iowa State’s first black student and faculty member and a renowned agricultural researcher — also stayed in the Martin home when he visited Ames.

They may have been strict, but they were sweet people who cared about the students, she said.

“My grandfather was such a gentle man. He was very sweet,” she said. “My grandmother was just the opposite. She was kind of salty, she was tough.”

Students lived with the Martins until the enrollment of students of color outgrew the couple’s ability to house them. Archie secured a promise from ISU President Raymond Pearson that the residence halls would be opened to students of color. When students continued to be denied, Archie went a second time to persuade the president to ease the students’ difficulties.

Nancy died a few days before her 92nd birthday in 1947. Archie died in 1960 at the age of 102.

The family was happy to learn that Archie and Nancy would be honored with the new residence hall, Pauline said.

“They never would have believed something like this could happen. They were really humble people,” she said.

“But they would be really pleased.”