Siblings John W. Martin and Annie Mae Martin Phillips were life-long educators in Florida’s public schools. Natives of Hawthorne, Fla., a town about 15 miles east of Gainesville, these UF graduates felt a strong call to serve the youth of this state.

Annie Mae Martin Phillips spent all but three years of her teaching career at Hawthorne High School. She was involved with many extracurricular activities at the school throughout the years. She coached girls basketball, advised students constructing the yearbook and sponsored the senior class. The football stadium at Hawthorne High bears her name in honor of the half-century she spent teaching math and English to many generations of students.

In the Hawthorne community, she and her husband James W. Phillips owned and operated a grocery store. She also served on the Alachua County Democratic Committee and attended the 1960 National Democratic Convention as a delegate. She was 82 when she passed away in 1990.

John Martin was a teacher and educational administrator in Volusia and Palm Beach Counties, Fla., for more than 50 years. In 1963, Gov. Ferris Bryant appointed Martin to a two-year term as superintendent of public instruction for Palm Beach County. He also taught business and accounting at Palm Beach Junior College and retired in 1984. Martin passed away in 1989 at the age of 7