Martin Harris

Martin Harris is the name of:

See also

Martin Harris (academic)

Sir Martin Best Harris CBE (born 28 June 1944) is a British academic and former University Vice-Chancellor. He was born at Ruabon, Wales, the son of William Best Harris, afterwards City Librarian of Plymouth, and educated at Devonport High School for Boys in Plymouth, at Queens' College, Cambridge and at the School of Oriental and African Studies. He began his academic career at the University of Leicester in 1967, where he lectured in French Linguistics. He spent fifteen years at the University of Salford as a Senior Lecturer, Professor of Linguistics, Dean and, later, Pro-Vice-Chancellor. From 1984 to 1987 he was a member of the University Grants Committee.

His first appointment as Vice-Chancellor was at the University of Essex in 1987, where he succeeded the founding Vice-Chancellor, Albert Sloman.

His most prominent academic appointment was Vice-Chancellor of the Victoria University of Manchester from 1992 until its dissolution in the formation of the new University of Manchester in 2004. During his time in Manchester he also at various times Chairman of both the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals (now UUK), and of its Health Committee, a member of the Commission for Health Improvement and a member of the Department of Health – Department for Education and Skills Strategic Learning and Research Advisory Group: StLAR, and Chair of the Clinical Academic Staff Advisory Group of the Universities and Colleges Employers Association.

Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)

Martin Harris (May 18, 1783 – July 10, 1875) was an early convert to the Latter Day Saint movement who guaranteed the first printing of the Book of Mormon and also served as one of Three Witnesses who testified that they had seen the golden plates from which Joseph Smith said the Book of Mormon had been translated.

Biography

Harris was born in Eastown, New York, the second of the eight children born to Nathan Harris and Rhoda Lapham.

Early life

According to historian Ronald W. Walker, little is known of his youth, "but if his later personality and activity are guides, the boy partook of the sturdy values of his neighborhood which included work, honesty, rudimentary education, and godly fear." In 1808, Harris married his first cousin Lucy Harris.

Harris served with the New York militia in the War of 1812. Harris inherited 150 acres.

Until 1831, Harris lived in Palmyra, New York, where he was a prosperous farmer. Harris's neighbors considered him both an honest and superstitious man. A biographer wrote that Harris's "imagination was excitable and fecund." For example, Harris once perceived a sputtering candle to be the work of the devil. An acquaintance said that Harris claimed to have seen Jesus in the shape of a deer and walked and talked with him for two or three miles. The local Presbyterian minister called him "a visionary fanatic." A friend, who praised Harris as being "universally esteemed as an honest man," also declared that Harris's mind "was overbalanced by 'marvellousness'" and that his belief in earthly visitations of angels and ghosts gave him the local reputation of being crazy. Another friend said, "Martin was a man that would do just as he agreed with you. But, he was a great man for seeing spooks." Nevertheless, even early anti-Mormons who knew Harris believed that he was "honest," "industrious," "benevolent," and a "worthy citizen."