$500,000 Endowment : UC Irvine to Get Chair in Psychiatry

UC Irvine’s first chair in psychiatry will be established with a $500,000 donation from the estate of Della Martin, sister of an aviation pioneer in Orange County.

The family of Della Martin, who died in 1974 at the age of 90, decided that she was mentally ill when she was a child and committed her to a sanitarium for life. More than 50 years later, she was declared sane “but suffering from cultural underexposure,” according to “From Jennies to Jets,” an aviation history of Orange County by Vi Smith.

Upon being released from the institution at age 73, Martin inherited about $10 million from the estate of her brother, Glenn Martin. When she died, a foundation was established in her name.

Dr. Edward Quilligan, vice chancellor for health sciences and dean of the College of Medicine at UC Irvine, said the Della Martin Foundation’s gift “affirms our commitment to the study of mental illness and to alleviating the pain. . . .”

“It’s just the type of support from the community that will enable our faculty to unlock the puzzles of psychiatric disorders.”

The endowment creates the seventh chair in the College of Medicine and the 13th for UCI overall. An endowed chair allows a university to attract top scholars and researchers by being able to pay them more. Interest income from an endowment provides the extra money.

Scott Nelson, a spokesman for UCI, said Friday that a search committee will be formed to appoint a professor to fill the new Della Martin Chair in Psychiatry. Nelson noted that the chair still must be formally approved by the UCI Academic Senate and the UC Board of Regents.

The Della Martin Foundation, which was established in 1973, previously endowed chairs for mental-illness research at UCLA and USC.

Smith, in her book, said Della Martin’s commitment to a sanitarium in the San Gabriel Valley in the early 1900s came after the girl had been declared a “religious fanatic.” Smith said it was not until Glenn Martin’s death in 1955 that efforts were made to secure her freedom.

Until her release, Smith said, Della Martin had, “for whatever reasons, never been allowed to have shoes.”