Bonds Donate Art History Books to Library

Dr. Martin L. Bond will retire from his position as Professor of English and Dean of the College of Liberal Arts after this semester and return to New Mexico with his wife, Sharon Bond, Associate Professor of Nursing. Fortunately for Fairmont State University, the Bonds have made the difficult decision to leave their collection of art history books here for others to enjoy by donating them to the Ruth Ann Musick Library.

"The staff of the Ruth Ann Musick Library is deeply appreciative and honored to have been entrusted with these wonderful materials," said Thelma Hutchins, Director of Library Services for FSU. "This collection is a memorial to the strong support that the library has continually received from both Martin and Sharon Bond."

"After British literature of the 18th century, my first love is art history, the discipline of my post-doctoral fellowships," Dr. Martin L. Bond said.

His first such experience was at Yale University, where he had the opportunity to study "Images of Revolution: Verbal and Visual Texts, and began his long-time focus on the imagery of satirist and portraitist William Hogarth along with novels by the artist's contemporary writers. Bond's second fellowship was at the University of California, Berkeley, on "Art of the Early Industrial Age," which provided an emphasis upon German artists and English watercolorists. His last post-doctoral seminar, taken at Columbia University, was a study of classical portraiture, which led to his interest in English portraiture and characterization in the novel.

"Many of the works in our collection reflect these areas of study," Bond said. "We've collected others during our years of travel as well as from the regions where we've lived. Some, finally, represent artists whose work we find interesting or beautiful or both. It's an eclectic gathering of materials, for which there's no central theme or single perspective. We simply hope that others will discover imagery that will both delight and instruct."

Martin L. Bond, a native of New Mexico, received both his B.A. and M.A. in English from the University of New Mexico, where he met and married Sharon, his partner for over 40 years. After receiving his Ph. D. from Louisiana State University, Martin joined the English faculty of Tennessee State University in Nashville. Having completed post-doctoral fellowships in art history at Yale and the University of California, Berkeley, Martin moved to Delta State University in Cleveland, Miss., where he became chair of the Division of Language and Literature and was awarded a third fellowship, this one at Columbia University. In 1992 Martin joined the Fairmont State faculty as chair of the Division of Language and Literature, and subsequent to the institution's restructuring as Fairmont State University, he was named Dean of the College of Liberal Arts.

Community involvement over his 15 Fairmont years includes the following: participation in Leadership Marion; membership in Christ Episcopal Church, where he served three terms as Senior Warden; volunteer service for the Soup Opera; three years as President of the Fairmont Arts and Humanities Commission; membership in the Elks; and he is currently President of the Op Shop Executive Board.

Known as "Dean Martin," he has found serving as an advocate for disciplines and faculty in the Behavioral Sciences, Language and Literature and Social Sciences Departments to be an ideal capstone experience to his 35 years in higher education. Referring to the Liberal Arts faculty and staff along with colleagues across campus as his "extended family," Martin invites all to visit him and Sharon in Las Cruces, N.M.

Sharon Bond graduated from the University of New Mexico with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. After moving to Nashville, Tenn., she received a master's degree in Psychology from Tennessee State University. A move to Mississippi meant another degree, a Master's in Nursing. Seeking to escape the mosquitoes in the Mississippi Delta, she attended the University of Alabama in Birmingham, where she has completed course work for a Doctor of Nursing Science.

Sharon has been employed at FSU since 1994. Until 2004, she taught in the Associate Degree Program, teaching a variety of courses including Medical-Surgical Nursing, LPN Transition, Psychiatric Nursing and Trends in Nursing. In 2004 she was invited to join Mary Meighen in the Baccalaureate Program in Nursing. In the fall semester of 2006, having received a grant, she and three other professors, Carolyn Crisplip-Tacy, Pam Huggins and Ann Shaver, presented a course titled "Obesity: A Nation at Risk."

The emphasis of Bond's research has been in the area of body image. Her master's thesis in nursing focused on the effect of touch on the body image of the new ostomate client. The focus of research for the doctoral dissertation was her other passion, geriatrics, and was titled, "The Meaning of Body Image to the Well Elderly Woman." Her findings demonstrated that older women like themselves far more than the public might expect. It was obvious that the body no longer had significance to them as a cultural object but had become an integral part of their very positive self-concept.

Sharon was recently honored, along with Dr. Jeffrey Poland, with the Faculty Recognition Award. The Faculty Development Committee selects outstanding faculty members each year to receive the Faculty Recognition Awards. The winners are selected because of their clear commitment to continuing development in their fields and service to their community.