Wiregrass Times

Dr. Martin T. “Marty” Olliff, Professor of History and Director of the Wiregrass Archives at the Dothan Campus, has been awarded Troy University’s Wallace D. Malone, Jr. Distinguished Faculty Award.

Dr. Olliff was presented the award during the University’s annual Faculty/Staff Convocation on Friday at the Troy Campus.

The award consists of a $1,500 cash prize, a medallion to be worn with academic regalia and a specially designed commemorative artwork featuring a globe to underscore the honor as a university-wide award. The award is made possible through a $100,000 endowment by the SouthTrust Corporation. Wallace Malone, former chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of SouthTrust, served as a TROY trustee from 1975-1995.

“It is always a surprise when you get recognition from your peers and colleagues, and I am extraordinarily humbled to receive this award,” Dr. Olliff said. “I have known a number of past recipients of this award. It puts me in company that I honestly do not feel myself qualified to be in but obviously others felt otherwise.”

Dr. Steven Taylor, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, called Dr. Olliff a well-rounded faculty member.

“We share Marty with the library and he is the campus coordinator for us at the Dothan Campus,” Dr. Taylor said. “He has his archives work that he does and his outstanding scholarship. We have a lot of great faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences and Marty is a very well-rounded faculty member.”

Dr. Olliff earned his bachelor’s degree in education from Auburn University in 1976 and went on to earn a master’s degree in European history from Auburn in 1979. He received his Ph.D. in American History from Auburn in 1998, where his dissertation was entitled “From Craft to Profession: The American Culinary Federation and the Organizational Identity of Twentieth-Century Chefs.”

Dr. Olliff became Director of the Wiregrass Archives at Troy University in 2002 and became an Associate Professor in 2005. Prior to joining the TROY faculty, he served as Assistant Archivist for Electronic Media at Auburn University.

Dr. Olliff’s areas of expertise are United States history, archival studies, historical methods, public history and the history of Alabama.

In 2008, the University of Alabama Press published his edited volume, “The Great War in the Heart of Dixie: Alabama in World War I” and, in 2017, also published his “Getting Out of the Mud: Alabama’s Good Roads Movement and Highway Administration, 1898-1928.”

Dr. Olliff has served on the governing board of the Alabama Historical Commission, the Alabama Governor’s Mansion Commission, the Alabama Humanities Foundation, Dothan Landmarks Foundation, and the Wiregrass Museum of Art; and as president or chairman of the Alabama Historical Association, Historic Chattahoochee Commission, Alabama Association of Historians, and the Society of Alabama Archivists. He also served on the editorial board of The Alabama Review: A Quarterly Journal of Alabama History and is currently on the editorial board of Provenance: Journal of the Society of Georgia Archivists.

Dr. Olliff is a regular contributor to TROY Today, the University’s blog, with his popular “It Came from the Archives” series, which has now also been launched as a podcast.

Dr. Marty Olliff, Profesor of History and Director of the Wiregrass Archives, was presented with the Wallace D. Malone Jr. Distinguished Faculty Award during Friday’s Faculty/Staff Convocation. The award consists of a $1,500 cash prize, a medallion to be worn with academic regalia and a specially designed commemorative artwork featuring a globe to underscore the honor as a university-wide award. The recipient also has the honor of carrying the University Mace to lead processionals during official University events.

Original link can be found here.