Martin Kaufman

Marty Kaufman lived life pursuing his passions with enthusiasm, dedication, and infectious good humor. He was known for his intellectual curiosity, creative orientation, big ideas, and an unrelenting work ethic. He treasured his family, friends, and relationships with the many professional colleagues who spanned his more than 50-year career in education. The passion that defined Marty’s entire career was a belief that individuals with disabilities matter—they make a difference to the health of our society. His professional development was strongly shaped by the civil rights revolution that included the national movement in the 1960s to establish a right to a free, appropriate public education for children and youth with disabilities. As he was completing his doctoral studies in 1970, Marty was recruited to join the federal government to help build its capacity to meet the new challenges of Public Law 94-142, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, now known as IDEA. He served in the U.S. Office of Special Education Programs for 23 years, much of that time directing the research and evaluation initiatives conducted by the Division for Innovation and Development. As director, Marty brought boundless energy, zeal for empirical research, and an entrepreneurial mindset to the field he and colleagues spread across the country were building. By any standard of productivity, Marty was an accomplished researcher and federal research administrator. He guided a $400 million program that included over 2,000 grants and contracts for research, evaluation, development, technology applications, and knowledge access and use. He provided the conceptual design leadership for a generation of congressionally mandated studies and national surveys to evaluate the law’s implementation. He used his position, advocacy and creativity to help build, connect and support a national community of researchers and social innovators to move research to practice. Marty recognized that unique opportunities existed in states to provide sustained support for school-level change. In 1992, Marty was named dean of the College of Education at the University of Oregon and served in that role until 2005. He was attracted to this position because of the quality of the faculty and the capacity of the college to effect systemic changes nationally to improve educational outcomes. He was recognized for revitalizing the college, including the redesign of academic programs to be responsive to the changing needs of Oregon’s educators, schools, and communities. During his tenure, the college rose to be ranked among the top five public colleges of education in the country according to U.S. News & World Report and consistently ranked in the top three for special education. He was the driving force in advancement efforts to build a new $48 million education building for the college. Marty’s work with students inspired him and gave him special satisfaction - teaching, advising, and learning from them. He retired from the University of Oregon in 2010. Throughout his career, Marty was driven by the belief that advancing knowledge is a community effort and that the development and nurturing of that community is essential. Marty cultivated deep working relationships supporting the development of a generation of researchers, faculty, agency staff and practitioners, transforming the individuals he worked with by his deep caring for improving the lives children and youth. This tireless commitment created a life of purpose and transformative impact on the field of education research and policy. Martin Joel Kaufman was born on September 22, 1941 in New York City to Esther (Krevner) and Melvin Kaufman, both deceased. He earned his undergraduate and Master’s degrees from the College of William and Mary, and his doctorate in special education from the University of Texas, Austin. He passed away on June 1, 2019 at the Pete Moore Hospice House from complications of Alzheimer’s Disease. Survivors include his loving wife Linda Lewis, daughter Nicole Kaufman and husband Kerry Glasgow, grandsons Tariq and Kyle Glasgow, sister Mary Cunningham and husband Tom, nephew Noah Cunningham, and niece Sarah Cunningham. He is also survived by his first wife Elaine O’Grady, mother of Nicole. The family is grateful to many who provided caring support to Marty, especially Anna and Michael, who were both companions and friends. We appreciate all who made personal connections with Marty, including those at Elderhealth and Living, and his friends who kept him in their hearts, visited him, and extended themselves to support his family. A celebration of Marty’s life will be held later this year. Donations in Marty’s memory can be made to Direction Service at 1144 Gateway Loop #200, Springfield, OR 97477 (https://directionservice.org/) in support of its mission to help people with disabilities and special needs live full and healthy lives. This agency’s family services program started with a small federal grant more than 40 years ago from an initiative Marty led while working for the federal government.