Joan Kulgren Martin of East Hampton, a former college professor and director of Taproot Workshops, an organization that provides writing classes for senior citizens on Long Island, died of a stroke on Jan. 16 at Stony Brook University Hospital. She was 88 and had been ill for three years.
Born on July 19, 1931, in Tacoma, Wash., to William Gilbert and the former Margaret Schulz, she grew up in Tacoma and graduated from Lincoln High School there.
After earning a bachelor’s degree from Reed College in Portland, Ore., and a master’s in literature from the University of Chicago, she became an English professor at the University of Nebraska.
In 1955, she moved to New York City, where she briefly worked in advertising. The following year she married Roger Martin.
When her husband was drafted into the Army, they moved first to Carmel, Calif., near Fort Ord, and then Wiesbaden, Germany. During that time, she taught college courses to noncommissioned officers. The couple divorced in 1978.
Upon returning to New York, she worked in insurance, and, in 1960, she began a 13-year career as a professor at Queens College. She then began teaching at Lincoln Hall Boys’ Haven, a school in Westchester County for troubled youth. She became its principal in 1982.
At 53, while working at Lincoln Hall, she began taking night classes at St. John’s University School of Law, where she was a member of the Law Review. She graduated with honors in 1988 and got a job in the litigation department of the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher, and Flom in Manhattan.
After having spent summers and weekends in East Hampton, she moved here year round in 1997, once she had retired. She served on the board of the Windmill Village housing complex here.
She was a lifelong supporter of the Democratic Party, as well as an activist. She had protested the investigations of the House Un-American Activities Committee while at Reed College, and attended the 1963 March on Washington at which the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech.
She was a prolific reader, routinely solved the New York Times crossword puzzles, and often answered “Jeopardy” questions before the show’s contestants did.
She enjoyed musical theater, the New York Yankees, playing tennis, and traveling — particularly a late-in-life trip to China. She also had a fondness for animals, having adopted several pets.
She is survived by a son, John G. Martin, and a daughter, Stacey P. Martin, both of Douglaston, Queens, and two grandchildren.
At her request, there were no services. A memorial will be held on a date to be determined.
Memorial donations have been suggested to the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons, P.O. Box 901, Wainscott 11975.
