Former Wheaton College president Hudson Taylor Armerding dies

Hudson Taylor Armerding, who led Wheaton College during years of social unrest and the Vietnam War, died on Tuesday. He was 91.

The Carol Stream resident served as Wheaton College's fifth president from 1965 to 1982. On Wednesday, the school's current leader remembered Armerding as "a great inspiration."

"Hudson was not only a scholar, teacher, and college president; he was also a pastor who shared biblical truths from his heart," Wheaton College President Duane Litfin said in a statement. "He wrote countless sermons, addresses and articles during the course of his life. He served the Lord so faithfully and so long, and challenged Wheaton students to understand a Christian's death is walking into the sunrise."

Armerding's ties to Wheaton College started long before his tenure as president.

In 1941, he graduated from the college with a degree in history. He earned a Master's degree in international affairs from Clark University in 1942.

One day before graduating from Clark, Armerding was sworn into the U.S. Navy. He served for three years on the heavy cruiser USS Wichita during World War II.

Armerding married Miriam Lucille Bailey, a Wheaton graduate and faculty member of the Wheaton College Conservatory of Music, on Dec. 26, 1944 during a short leave from the Wichita.

In 1949, the couple joined the faculty at Gordon College in Massachusetts. After a semester of teaching at Gordon, Armerding was asked to become acting dean - an appointment that became permanent. He later served as acting president.

Eventually, Armerding joined Wheaton College's history faculty. About a year later, he was appointed Wheaton's first provost, a position he held for two years.

Then in 1965, Armerding was inaugurated as college president. During his 17 years leading the school, Armerding oversaw construction of a new library, the Billy Graham Center and a science building that was named in his honor a decade after it was built.

"During his administration Wheaton's faculty focused with renewed energy on the integration of faith and learning," Litfin said. "He wrestled with challenges of leading a college community during the difficult years of the Vietnam War."

In addition to writing sermons and articles, Armerding wrote several books, including "A Word to the Wise" and "The Heart of Godly Leadership."

After retiring in 1982, Armerding served as vice president of the Quarryville Presbyterian Retirement Community in Pennsylvania until 1999. He stayed there as counselor-in-residence until 2006, when he moved to Windsor Park Manor Retirement Community in Carol Stream.

Funeral arrangements are pending. Wheaton College has set up a memorial Web page at wheaton.edu/armerding/.