Alberta Martin, 92, nurse, educator and WWII veteran

Alberta Martin, 92, of Mount Airy, a groundbreaking African American nurse and World War II veteran, died of heart failure Tuesday, Jan. 24, at her nephew Albert Martin's home in Collegeville.

Miss Martin grew up with eight siblings in South Carolina and North Philadelphia. She graduated from William Penn High School in 1936 and graduated from Mercy-Douglass Hospital School of Nursing in Philadelphia in 1942.

She then tried to enlist in the Army Nurse Corps. In autobiographical notes, she wrote that her application was denied because there was a quota for black nurses. In March 1945, she finally received a commission as a lieutenant and was one of 20 black nurses to serve in an integrated unit in Fort Meade, Md.

After her discharge in 1946, Miss Martin earned bachelor's and master's degrees in nursing from the University of Pennsylvania.

In 1950, she became the first black head nurse at Philadelphia General Hospital. But when she applied to join the faculty of the hospital's school of nursing, Miss Martin wrote, the director of nursing told her that "it was not the time to have a black instructor on the faculty."

After her rejection, Miss Martin joined the faculty of Methodist Hospital School of Nursing and became the school's assistant director. In the late 1950s, she resigned her faculty position to be a night supervisor at Methodist so she could care for her mother during the day, her nephew said.

Miss Martin was on the faculty of Chestnut Hill Hospital School of Nursing in the 1960s.

In 1969, according to her autobiographical notes, she became the first black faculty member at Temple University's College of Allied Health. As a professor of nursing, she helped develop the curriculum for the collegiate nursing program.

Miss Martin was a two-time recipient of Temple's Lindback Award for distinguished teaching.

After retiring in 1978, she was a volunteer teacher's aide at Emlen School and tutored at Lankenau-Germantown Motivation School.

A world traveler, Miss Martin represented Temple at an international nursing conference in Tokyo.

She was the author of several articles and book reviews published in nursing journals and enjoyed writing poetry.

In one poem, A Psalm to Live By, she wrote:

"Lord,

"Help me face my problems with a smile.

"Accept them and absorb them into my way of life.

"Recognizing my limitations, give me the courage to face them openly.

"Guide me spiritually so that my directions in life may be meaningful and helpful to others."

Miss Martin is survived by nieces and nephews.

A funeral will be at 10 a.m. Friday, Feb., 3, at Zoar United Methodist Church, 1204 Melon St., Philadelphia. Friends may call from 9 a.m. at the church, where she was a member for 84 years.