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Loma Armstrong

Loma Armstrong



 
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07/10/15 08:30 PM #1    

Richard Houghton (Scott) (1969)

Like my paternal grandmother, who died a few months before I was born, Loma passed away in early 1967, about the same time I came into contact with Worldwide, receiving my first issue of The Plain Truth magazine beginning with the April '67 "Six Day War" issue.

A few weeks later I also received a glossy 8 1/2 X 11 portrait of an elderly and distinguished looking lady, and was puzzled over who this was, and why I was sent this photo.

A few years later, after applying for Ambassador College, just before graduating high school that year, and attending Worldwide for the first time one week before traveling by train from Kansas City, Missouri to Pasadena, California as a freshman AC student, I had read HWA's autobiography, and had learned about his wife Loma.

Having never met the lady personally, I can only go by what others have said about her, and I have only heard good things; that she was humble, concerned about the students' welfare, and a very positive influence.

I do question her spiritual priorities in promoting, or at least not opposing, the high and rich lifestyles of Worldwide's ministry; even though there is nothing wrong with quality, so long as others do not suffer by providing such benefits through needless sacrifices.

The hierarchy of top-down authority was another mistake, especially in the way it was misadministered, but most of those abuses took place after Loma was gone, so I cannot know if she had any direct hand in this.

The loss of her and HWA's eldest son Richard, and rebellion of GTA (who initially ran off to join the Navy and get tattooed) were, I believe, judgments upon their parents for past, perhaps hidden sins (and prophetic signs, to any who were paying close attention, of things yet to come).

Whatever the end result that Worldwide and AC became, only our Creator can and will rightly judge this lady's life, efforts and true worth. Hopefully she had far more redeeming values than not, to grant her favor before the Creator's seat of judgment.


08/04/15 07:07 AM #2    

Kenneth Graham (1969)

What a gracious lady.  I met her the first time while at Summer Camp in Big Sandy in 1962.  She was running several offices and I was called in for disciplinary reasons.  (Although I never fully understood why).  I had come in (forcibly) to try out for the camp choir.  Apparently my voice was good enough and I was told I'd be in the choir.  (Camp was 8 weeks long then).  That they would sing every week.  I suggested that I'd hoped to go on the canoe trip later that summer.  I was told by the choir director that would not be possible.  So, I said I'd rather not be in the choir then.  I was firm about it so I was sent to see Mrs. Armstrong.  I had not yet encountered how severe some of the discipline could be there as yet, so I went along to see Mrs. Armstrong and sat outside her office for a few minutes.  Her secretary called me into her office and we met.  She asked me my name and where I was from, and I responded.  Then she said, "I understand you don't want to be in the choir."  "Might I ask why?"  I explained my reservations about not being able to go on the canoe trip.  She thought for a moment and said, "Well that sounds like a very good reason not to want to be in the the choir," and I was sent back to my booth.  That was one of the few truly fair treatments that I received at camp from the leadership there and have always remembered her for it.  She truly was a marvelous leader.  


08/15/15 09:47 AM #3    

Robert Macdonald III (1958)

 

My Memories of Loma Dillon Armstrong by Robert Macdonald

When I came to AC in 1959 Loma had an office in the then Administration Building which had been built into an outbuilding of the Fowler Estate (the then library/classroom building).  Her office was just inside the door on the right.  Her door was always open, and she was very accessible to students.  I talked to here there on several occasions, but wish I had asked her more questions.  I learned that she detested gossip and the practice of some in the ministry of prying into people’s private lives.  I once asked her if she missed her house at 345 North Hill after she had moved into the house at the corner of Grove St. and  South Orange Grove.  She preferred the Hill St. location by far!  Her countenance suggested that she bore the burdens of the world were on her shoulders.   I wish I had (tactfully) asked her about that! 

Her part in her husband’s ministry can not be underestimated.  She was the only one who could say “NO!” to him.  Several students told me that she intervened when HWA was council with them started an improper line of questioning.  Sitting in the background, she would exclaim “Herbert!”, and he would immediately back off.

I have wondered if she had lived longer perhaps that she could have prevented many of the bad decisions that led to the downfall (or at least delayed) of AC and the WCG.


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