EDMOND—About 140 Herbert W. Armstrong College faculty and alumni attended the college’s first reunion on January 6 on the top floor of the Devon Energy Center in Oklahoma City. Attendees said the highlight of the night was chancellor Gerald Flurry’s moving speech about lessons he personally learned surrounding his years as a student at the institution’s predecessor, Ambassador College.
Prior to the chancellor’s address, guests mingled as a slideshow depicted hundreds of moments from the college’s 14½ years. Reunion planner Edwin Trebels (’07) greeted the group from the lectern in front of floor-to-ceiling glass windows as dozens mingled, smiled and chuckled as familiar and forgotten photos appeared.
The chatter and laughter later gave way to symphonic music introducing a six-minute retrospective video created by Jessie Hester (’14). The audience relived the campus groundbreaking ceremonies, observed the building of the John Amos Field House, the Mail Processing Center and Armstrong Auditorium, and took in aerial views of campus, portraits of graduating classes, and inspirational quotes about the college from president Stephen Flurry and chancellor Gerald Flurry.
“Young people, this opportunity you have—well, you ought to be a little nervous when you come,” Chancellor Flurry said on the video. “You’re coming to God’s college. There’s something really special about God’s college, and I sensed that when I went to Pasadena.” “God’s college” and the Ambassador College connection would become the motifs of the night.
President Flurry, himself a former Ambassador College student, thanked the graduates and faculty for coming. The group included several graduates who traveled from out of state especially to attend the reunion, including Jeff and Krystle Hardin (Alabama), Kelcey Perry and Emil and Jacqueline Remo (California), Janina Zollner (Illinois), Josh and Lauren Wainwright (Texas), Justin and Breann Bacon (Arkansas) and Siobhan Simmons (Kansas). Other graduates and former faculty from out of town and out of the country who stayed over from the Philadelphia Church of God ministerial conference to attend the reunion included David and Chelsey Weeks and Timothy and Joy Oostendarp (Canada), Victor and Sarah Vejil (Maryland), Joseph and Stacey Short (Tennessee), Andrew and Belinda Hessong (California), Eric and Julie Anderson (Illinois), Alex and Glenys Harrison (Australia) and President Flurry himself and his wife, Amy (England).
The group of visitors and Edmond locals represented the majority of the college’s 104 two-year graduates and 95 four-year graduates. President Flurry reminisced on the college’s small and humble beginnings and its growth, particularly in terms of families. Before introducing his father, he mentioned that the chancellor is even more involved with the college than one might think—something that grads and students say is borne out by how much the chancellor remembers about them and their families, even though the numbers of students and grads continue to swell and conversations with the chancellor may be infrequent.
The college has graduated 199 students who now live in 22 American states and six countries. Graduates’ professions include: welder, waitress, résumé coach, trucker, upholsterer, receptionist, technician, business owner, consultant, graphic designer, mechanic, app developer, installer, marketer, tile setter, accountant, machinist, advertiser, window washer, IT analyst, chemist, photographer, handyman, system administrator, homemaker, mother, office manager, and regional director.
A total of 51 all-time faculty members have taught 2,102 credit hours. President Flurry has taught the most, one credit hour ahead of instructor Mark Jenkins; instructor Brian Davis has taught the third-highest number of classes.
Sixty-three out of the 79 alumni who are married are wed to another graduate. Forty Armstrong grads are fathers or mothers to a total of 66 children, 13 of whom attend the college’s sister institution, Imperial Academy. And more children are on the way.
More than 30 Armstrong grads are themselves children of graduates from Ambassador College, which was founded in 1947 by Herbert W. Armstrong. Chancellor Flurry spoke for 30 minutes about his personal experiences, centering on his time at Ambassador between his acceptance in 1967 and his graduation in 1970.
“It’s inspiring to see so many here, so many that I haven’t seen in quite a long while,” Mr. Flurry said. “This is God’s college, and that’s really probably a vision we all have kept in our minds. I certainly believe that.”
Mr. Flurry shared that his first Ambassador College application was rejected. He assumed he needed to move on, so he married and continued to live in the St. Louis, Missouri, area, attending the Worldwide Church of God.
But then the door to attend Ambassador College as a married student opened at the last minute. Mr. Flurry said he was accepted on a Friday and he and his wife, Barbara, left for Pasadena, California, less than three days later. Yet the open door to God’s college did not mean that life would become easy. Mr. Flurry shared that he struggled with problems but had faith that going to God for help and submitting to His government would lead to solving those difficulties, even when doing so led to hard correction. He said that the attitude of going to God’s government for help with problems could have been the reason God kept him at Pasadena.
“I have seen over the years that it really does work that way,” Mr. Flurry said. “Amazing things happen when you walk by faith—I mean truly amazing things.”
Mr. Flurry shared how the effort to accept correction and trust God guided him through hard challenges as a student, as a ministerial trainee, as a writer for the Church’s editorial department, and as a minister. “Take it to God,” he said. “There’s always a solution; there’s always an answer.”
Alumni and faculty said Mr. Flurry showed a tender, fatherly side, and everyone in the ballroom was riveted. He concluded his talk by encouraging the Armstrong family to walk by faith and affectionately shared with the graduates and instructors that he thinks of them as his own children.
As guests continued to mingle after the talk, Trebels looked down through the glass walls to the city lights 50 floors beneath a light fog. He said it reminded him of chancellor Flurry’s address.
“We have many opportunities at God’s college,” he said, “but the vision of where our individual lives are headed is foggy at times, so we need to have faith and carry on, and God’s blessings will come.”
“You just have to keep walking by faith,” Mr. Flurry said, “because God rewards faith in ways that will truly amaze you as time goes on.”
It was an often-repeated lesson that has been taught at Armstrong, Ambassador, God’s Church through the ages, and long before that. But graduates said that the lesson hit home a little bit deeper at the reunion, in an environment full of proof of what God does, even through hard times, in the lives of those who endeavor to walk by faith.