Marty van Steenderen served UW-Whitewater as its first athletics director for women from 1971-86.
She joined the faculty of UW-Whitewater in 1961 as an assistant professor of physical education with the special assignment of directing the Women's Recreation Association. It was this fortuitous hiring that van Steenderen seized to create, and expand, athletic opportunities for women.
Under van Steenderen’s leadership, the women's program grew from play days to sports days to intercollegiate contests, from an intramural program to a full-fledged intercollegiate athletic program, and from a few sports coached by volunteers in the Physical Education Department to nine varsity sports with paid head and assistant coaches.
She served as president of the Wisconsin Division for Girls and Women's Sports with a goal of improving the athletics opportunities for high school girls and college women in Wisconsin. She also served as president of the Wisconsin Women’s Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WWIAC) in 1978 and nationally with the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women. By the mid 1980’s, van Steenderen had helped to make the WWIAC one of the top NCAA Division III conferences in the nation.
She was inducted into the UW-Whitewater Hall of Fame in 1987, and the university’s softball complex is named in her honor.
A resident of Bonita Springs, Fla., van Steenderen earned a bachelor’s degree from UW-Madison and master’s degree from Indiana University.