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Guide to the Vernon Richard Martin Papers

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Collection Overview
Date Span:1950-1973
Creator:Martin, Vernon Richard (1893-1973)
Extent:1.00 linear feet.
Collection Number:MSC0298
Repository:University of Iowa Special Collections
Summary:Maytag executive and State Chairman of the Republican Party in Iowa. Primarily correspondence and subject files relating to his political work for the Republican Party.

Vernon Richard Martin was born in Waucoma, Iowa, in 1893. He began his career as a banker in Oelwein and Kellogg, Iowa. In the early 1920s he was a state bank examiner and the deputy superintendent of banking in Iowa. Martin went to work for the Maytag Company in 1924 as a salesman. He went on to serve as regional and divisional manager in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and Kentucky. During World War II, Martin served as the director of labor procurement in Newton, Iowa. Following the war he worked as the assistant branch manager of Maytag's Kansas City branch, returning to Newton in 1944 as general sales manager in charge of the Maytag Company's national sales organization. He retired from this position in 1954. After his retirement he gave lectures and seminars about sales and public relations. In addition to all of this he was engaged in dairy farming in the Newton area.

Martin was active in Republican Party politics and was chairman of the state Republican Party from 1959 to 1961. He was an alternate delegate to the Republican National Convention in San Francisco. He was also active in the Masonic Lodge, the Newton Chamber of Commerce, the Farm Bureau, and was a past president of the Sales Executives Club of Central Iowa. Vernon R. Martin died in 1973, at the age of eighty.

The papers of Vernon R. Martin date from 1950 to 1973 and consist of one linear foot of correspondence, clippings, subject folders, and scrapbooks relating to his career. The papers primarily document his work in Iowa's Republican Party organization, specifically as State Chairman. Political correspondence includes letters from Kenneth Benda, Norman A. Erbe, Edward D. Failor, H.R. Gross, Charles B. Hoeven, Evan L. Hultman, L.B. Liddy, Jack Miller, William H. Nicholas, Paul G. Norris, Robert D. Ray, Fred Schwengel, Vincent Starzinger, Melvin D. Synhorst, Lew Warren, and Charles E. Wittenmeyer. There are subject folders on the Iowa Center for Education in Politics and other miscellaneous campaign and political materials. A folder relating to his activities as a sales consultant and two scrapbooks make up the remainder of the collection.

Alternate Extent Statement: Photographs: Box 2

Access: This collection is open for research.

Use: Copyright restrictions may apply; please consult Special Collections staff for further information.

Acquisition: This collection was given to the University of Iowa Libraries by Vernon Martin's daughter, Betty J. Harris, in 1974.

Preferred Citation: Vernon Richard Martin Papers, The University of Iowa Libraries, Iowa City, Iowa.

Repository:University of Iowa Special Collections
Address:Special Collections Department
University of Iowa Libraries
Iowa City, IA 52242
Phone:319-335-5921
Curator:Greg Prickman
Email:lib-spec@uiowa.edu
Website:http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/spec-coll/

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This collection is indexed under the following subject terms.


Corporate Names:
Republican Party (Iowa)
University of Iowa. Iowa Center for Education in Politics

Topics:
Sales and salesmanship

Geographic Names:
Iowa
Newton (Iowa)

Genre/Form of Materials:
Scrapbooks