Lynn Martin

Lynn Morley Martin was inducted as a laureate of The Lincoln Academy of Illinois and awarded the Order of Lincoln (the State's highest honor) by Illinois Governor George Ryan in 2000 in the area of religion.

In 1995, she tested the waters to run for the 1996 Republican presidential nomination, but decided against it after concluding there was insufficient support for her candidacy. She participated in a Republican primary debate in New Hampshire on local television. Arguably, she would have been the most viable woman to run for the Republican presidential nomination in history to that date.

From 1993 to 1999, Martin was a professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and chair of the Council for the Advancement of Women and advisor to the firm of Deloitte & Touche LLP, for Deloitte's internal human resources and minority advancement matters. Martin also served together with British politician Shirley Williams (Baroness Williams of Crosby) as a U.N. Special Representative to the Former Yugoslavia during the Yugoslav Wars.

Martin ran for the U.S. Senate in 1990 against Democratic incumbent Paul Simon. She was considered a formidable challenger, but her campaign floundered — in ads, Martin poked fun at Simon's signature bow tie, but the humorous ad campaign was seen by some as petty and mean-spirited. Simon's popularity proved too much to overcome, and he won with 65 percent of the vote, carrying all but two counties in the state; Edwards County in the southeast and McHenry County outside Chicago, in the heart of the district Martin represented for most of the 1980s.

A loyalist to the Reagan Administration, she assisted then-Vice President George H.W. Bush with his preparation for the 1984 Vice Presidential debate against Geraldine Ferraro. Bush touted her as a possible running mate in his 1988 presidential campaign, though he eventually selected Indiana Senator Dan Quayle.

Martin was born in Evanston, Illinois, the daughter of Helen Catherine (Hall) and Lawrence William Morley, an accountant. She attended Taft High School in Chicago from 1952 to 1956. She was later named to Taft's Hall of Fame. In 1960 she graduated from the University of Illinois, where she was a member of the Gamma Phi Beta sorority. After becoming a teacher in the Rockford Public School District, she continued in that job after being elected to public office, serving as a member of the Winnebago County board from 1972 to 1976 before being elected to the Illinois House of Representatives (1977–79), Illinois Senate (1979–80), and U.S. House of Representatives (1981–91). In the U.S. House, she was vice chair of the House Republican Conference.

Lynn Morley Martin (born Judith Lynn Morley; December 26, 1939) is an American businesswoman and former United States politician who served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois from 1981 to 1991, representing the 16th congressional district, and as U.S. Secretary of Labor from 1991 to 1993.