Hudson Taylor Armerding, 91, former Wheaton College president died Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2009 at his home after a long battle with dementia.

Despite Hudson Taylor Armerding’s military experience as a naval officer during World War II, the longtime WheatonCollege president tapped his gentle spirit and his deep faith in God to reach out to students during the turbulent times of war protests on campus in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Dr. Armerding, who was Wheaton’s president from 1965 until 1982, was able to ease some of the students’ rebelliousness during those years and help unify the campus, colleagues said.

“Students all knew he was an old military guy, and they were rebelling against that, but as he would meet these kids and find their hearts, there was a real healing on campus,” said retired WheatonCollege football and track coach Don Church. “His heart was really gentle and soft, and he was willing to see that a person really loved God even though they … were rebellious.”

Dr. Armerding also shepherded WheatonCollege through a variety of changes during his tenure, including tougher admissions standards and building projects. He scored a coup when he persuaded his former WheatonCollege classmate, evangelist Billy Graham, to locate his archives on campus. The school’s massive BillyGrahamCenter museum, repository and classroom building opened in 1980.

Born in Albuquerque, N.M., Dr. Armerding was the son of an itinerant preacher and grew up in a variety of places in the Southwest U.S. He graduated from high school in San Diego in 1935. He lived for two years after high school in Wellington, New Zealand, working on a ranch.

He earned an undergraduate degree in history from Wheaton in 1941 and received a master’s degree in international affairs from ClarkUniversity in 1942.

During World War II, Dr. Armerding served as a line officer in the Pacific Ocean aboard the heavy cruiser USS Wichita, which participated in 11 naval engagements, including the invasion of Okinawa. After the war, Dr. Armerding helped liberate a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp near Nagasaki.

After leaving active duty, Dr. Armerding continued his studies at the University of Chicago, earning a doctorate in history in 1948.

From 1949 until 1961, Dr. Armerding taught and served as a dean and eventually acting president at GordonCollege and Seminary in Wenham, Mass. He took a job at Wheaton in 1961 as a professor and became provost the following year.

In 1965, Dr. Armerding succeeded the retiring V. Raymond Edman as Wheaton’s president. During his years at the helm, he worked hard to incorporate faith and learning, “which is kind of the keystone of WheatonCollege’s philosophy,” said retired WheatonCollege public affairs director Richard Gerig, who planned both Dr. Armerding’s inauguration and retirement ceremony.

“The faculty are committed to the idea of integrating that Christian faith into their various disciplines, and he helped to promote that and keep it stable and help it grow,” Gerig said.

Despite war protests on campus, Dr. Armerding found ways to bridge the gaps between the status quo and students who were questioning authority, said Lee Pfund, a retired Wheaton College assistant athletic director and the school’s men’s basketball coach from 1951 until 1975.

“I think he was the right man for his time,” Pfund said. “His discipline and his concern at the same time made him really effective during those years. It was a really difficult time for many campuses, and because of his leadership, we avoided some things that could have been less than happy situations.”

C. William Pollard, a retired ServiceMaster Co. chairman who spent five years working in the college’s administration and later served with Dr. Armerding on Wheaton’s board of trustees, praised him for leading the college during its effort to persuade his former classmate Graham to place his archives on campus.

“That was a major milestone for the institution,” Pollard said.

During Dr. Armerding’s tenure, the school also constructed a new science building — later named Armerding Hall — and a new library.

After retiring in 1982, Dr. Armerding moved to Quarryville Presbyterian Retirement Community in Quarryville, Pa., where he served as a vice president from 1985 until 1999. He returned to the Chicago area in 2007, when he moved to Windsor Park Manor in Carol Stream.

From the Chicago Tribune.

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