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Pioneer Faculty, Ambassador Loyalist Passes

Lucy (Martin) Weiner, a pioneer faculty member at Ambassador College, the institutional forerunner of the online Grace Communion Seminary, died in Pasadena, California on June 30, 2004. She was 98 years old and predeceased by both her husband and her only daughter.

Lucy Martin in her element, teaching Music in the Fine Arts Hall at Ambassador, Pasadena in 1972. Two years before, the barefoot girl from Tennessee gave a piano recital before King Leopold II of Belgium in the same room. Click photos to enlarge.

Lucy Martin was born on June 29, 1903 in the state of Tennessee. She answered a call to serve as librarian at the original and tiny Ambassador College grounds on South Orange Grove in Pasadena. She was one of eight original pioneering faculty in 1947-48 and served the College in a number of positions until her retirement in 1975. She served most notably as head of the Music Department and Dean of Women. She was never a (Worldwide Church of God) member but famously stood by the institution when others left, remembered Herman Hoeh, one of the four first students of Ambassador.

College founder Herbert Armstrong never forgot that sterling loyalty. Coming to Ambassador in 1947 was certainly an act of faith. Mrs. Martin came to Ambassador after working on the staff of the Library of Congress at Washington, D.C. While working as librarian and during harrowing manpower shortages at the fledgling college, she mentioned to then Chancellor Herbert Armstrong that she had done university level work in music. She offered to supplement her studies by summer study at New York's Juilliard School of Music. The culturally-attuned Armstrong jumped at the offer.

Lucy Martin (center) helps Herbert Armstrong congratulate his daughter Beverly on a solo recital in 1955. Mr. Armstrong loved music and being around musical people. Click to enlarge.

Lucy Martin is remembered as a cultural bulwark of the 50-year college. Though she was gracious and refined, she took no nonsense in class, remembers 1972 graduate Jan Weiner (no relation).

Herbert Armstrong saw music as essential to the well-rounded balanced life he strove to inculcate in Ambassador students. Music Appreciation was a required course at all three Ambassador campuses (Pasadena, California; Bricket Wood, United Kingdom; Big Sandy, Texas). It was considered a vital part of student training to be able to go out and represent the Radio/Worldwide Church of God and look the world in the eye. Herbert Armstrong himself played the piano and was listed in his 1910-1911 yearbook at North High School in Des Moines as a "musical person."

Lucy Martin was a vital part of that pursuit and was often seen at the Performing Arts Series in the heyday of the world-class Ambassador Auditorium (1976-2004). Throughout her long career she steered many undergraduates toward an appreciation of music and the fine arts.

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