Martha O’Kennon, jack of all trades
Math, computer science, linguistics guru to bid Albion College adieu

March 19, 2004
by Michelle Ilitch
Staff Reporter

After this spring, Albion College will be losing one of its faculty members who personifies the “Liberal Arts at Work” motto: Martha O’Kennon, professor of computer science and mathematics.

O’Kennon has lived in China and taught Chinese youths emerging from the cultural revolution how to use computers. She is proficient in German, Russian, French, and Chinese and can read Sanskrit, Old English and Irish. She is currently learning Ojibwe and Odawa, spoken by Native Americans from Northern Michigan. She also plays guitar, knits, and does a variety of crafts in addition to the courses she teaches.

O’Kennon is constantly exploring the world around her and finds it hard to have a dull moment. Boredom is non-existent when there are infinite things to challenge the mind, she said.

“I always tell my students you don’t need drugs to distract your mind, just throw yourself into math,” O’Kennon said.

A commitment to detail and the pursuit of finding connections prompted Professor O’Kennon’s interest in math. It is not the love of numbers that is intriguing for her, but the practice of problem solving in mathematics that is rewarding.

“Math is pretty,” O’Kennon said. “Calculus, for example, is so much fun because you have to figure things out. Seeing the patterns, pictures, deciding what goes together. When I do the work, even if it’s not that hard, there is like a pleasure center that goes off in my head. The success of solving a problem is like Zen.”

Although O’Kennon has been a math professor at Albion since 1985, she has not limited herself to Putnam Hall. She has taught Chinese as well as a survey course in the English department about the origins and connections of languages. When office for study abroad began a program in South Africa after the end of apartheid, O’Kennon jumped at the chance to learn the language and was the faculty sponsor. She is grateful that an institution such as Albion has been so accommodating to her varied interests.

“I am comfortable here,” O’Kennon said. “I have been able to teach language even though I was hired into the mathematics department. Many colleges would have thought that was pretty weird that someone in math would also be good at teaching Chinese, or even send me to Zulu in South Africa to study the language.”

Living in different countries has been fascinating for O’Kennon. She would rather not just travel, but actually live amongst the people. Communicating in and understanding foreign languages is pure fun, she said. She enjoys conversations in which she can find out how people carry out their lives.

“Wherever I have gone, I have learned so much about anthropology by meeting people,” O’Kennon said. “Often you go somewhere and worry that their life is going to be so much different from back home, but there is always something similar. In each country I have lived in, there has always been someone to like.”

O’Kennon’s eclectic talents stem from her love to learn new things. She currently is making pop-up cards that can be purchased at the Books and More store in downtown Albion. Want to show someone what China looks like? Simply open up one of the cards and out comes the Great Wall of China and a quiet garden. To commemorate the U.S. landing on Mars, O’Kennon made a pop-up that brings the red planet to life. She is also taking guitar lessons and is forming a student knitting circle.

One of O’Kennon’s greatest talents is her work creating language translation computer programs. If you go onto her website, www.albion.edu/mathcs/mokennon/, not only will you see her bright green and pink house, you will be able to translate from English to Ojibwe, Xhosa, and Pulaar and back.

They say that geniuses choose green. Looking around O’Kennon’s house one can see a hunter green couch, an emerald velvet end chair, a teal-feathered dream catcher—O’Kennon sees the simple beauty in color.

O’Kennon’s appreciation for the world around her and the possibility for learning at every turn have made her one of the most dynamic and interesting professors at Albion College.

Genius? Epitome of the Albion College motto? Renaissance woman extraordinaire? Whatever you dub her, Martha O’Kennon is a talent rarely seen who will leave a lasting mark at Albion College even after her retirement.