Martha Jayne Van Alstyne was born April 11, 1923 in Delaware, Ohio to Madeline and Benjamin F. Van Alstyne. In 1927, Ben was appointed head men’s basketball coach at Michigan State University and the family moved to East Lansing, Michigan. After graduation from East Lansing high school, Van Alstyne was accepted into the Intermediate School at Cranbrook Academy of Art. She was only eighteen years old. During the fall 1941, Van Alstyne studied ceramics with Maija Grotell, metals with Harry Bertoia, and Industrial Design with Walter Baermann. She then entered Pratt Institute in New York (1942-1945) where she studied industrial design with Alexander and Rowena Reed Kostellow. She obtained her Certificate of Industrial Design in 1945. During her time in New York, she did freelance work for such notable designers and architects as Gilbert Rohde Associates, Raymond Loewy, Clifford Pascoe, William Lescaze, and Eva Zeisel. Van Alstyne returned to Michigan State University where she taught Studio Art and Design courses from 1946-1948 and helped develop the first industrial design program as well as a Basic Design course for the Landscape Architecture School. In 1948 Van Alstyne enrolled in the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in New York State under Charles Harder. During the summer of 1949, she taught a course in Ceramic Raw Materials at Alfred, and by June 1950, had completed both her BFA and MFA requirements. Upon completion of her program at Alfred University, Van Alstyne took a position at Montana State University in Bozeman where she developed an Interior and Industrial Design program for the School of Art. After four years she returned to Michigan to take a design position with General Motors Frigidaire Division. Her focus was on designs for appliances including ranges, refrigerators, and laundry equipment. In 1954, Van Alstyne’s mentors from Pratt, the Kostellows, were hired by GM as consultants on the “Kitchen of Tomorrow” project which Van Alstyne helped design. She remained with GM for fourteen years, the latter four with the Safety and Human Performance Group in the Automotive Division and holds several patents for her design work. From 1960-1963, Van Alstyne also taught night classes at the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts and Oakland University. In 1969, Van Alstyne accepted a teaching position at Cornell University, and in 1972 she returned to Montana State where she was the professor in charge of the Professional Design Program. She retired in 1985 to Bozeman, Montana, where she passed away August 27, 2015.