Early Life and Religious Faith
Dwight Armstrong was born to Horace Elon Armstrong and Eva Wright Armstrong in Des Moines, Iowa on 12 September 1904, with a twin sister Mary Lucille Armstrong. The Armstrongs had come to the United States from England with William Penn, and were descended from Edward I, King of England. Like his brother Herbert, Dwight was raised in the Quaker religion. In his early adult life, he was employed in Portland, Oregon.
There are conflicting accounts pertaining to the conversion and baptism of Dwight Armstrong. According to one report, around the spring of 1927 Dwight Armstrong "accepted Christ while attending a Quaker congregation in Portland, Oregon". Subsequently, both Armstrong brothers were baptized during the Pentecost season of that year by Dr. Dean, pastor of the Hinson Memorial Baptist Church in Portland, Oregon. In the 1986 edition of Herbert W. Armstrong's Autobiography edited by Dr. Herman L. Hoeh, on pages 416-417 it suggests that Dwight answered an altar call given by his brother in December 1930 in Harrisburg, Oregon and was subsequently baptized by his brother.
In 1931 the family moved to a farm south of Oregon City, Oregon. The father died in early 1933, and Dwight remained on the farm until about 1947. After the founding of Ambassador College that year, Dwight moved with his mother to San Gabriel, California.
As of the mid-1950s, he was caring for his mother, who was living with him at the time. In 1953, Karen Hill (sister of longtime Worldwide Church of God minister David Jon Hill) came to Ambassador College in Pasadena to serve as a receptionist and telephone operator. In time, her duties grew to include caring for Mrs. Armstrong.
According to David Jon Hill, "Karen and Dwight became acquainted in this manner and got married in 1954. This made for some sort of further relationship with me and the Armstrongs that I never did figure out -- if I had kept at it I probably would have found out that I was my own grandpa. Dwight, as most know, was the composer of most of the Hymns in the Church Hymnal, used for so many years, and an accomplished violinist. He was a quiet man and kept mostly to himself -- a good match for my sister's social ability and talkative nature."
Read more about this topic: Dwight L. Armstrong
Famous quotes containing the words early, life, religious and/or faith:
“Probably more than youngsters at any age, early adolescents expect the adults they care about to demonstrate the virtues they want demonstrated. They also tend to expect adults they admire to be absolutely perfect. When adults disappoint them, they can be critical and intolerant.”
—The Lions Clubs International and the Quest Nation. The Surprising Years, I, ch.4 (1985)
“Young men of the fairest promise, who begin life upon our shores, inflated by the mountain winds, shined upon by all the stars of God, find the earth below not in unison with these,—but are hindered from action by the disgust which the principles on which business is managed inspire, and turn drudges, or die of disgust,—some of them suicides.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Pray for the Liberty of the Conscience to revive among us.... Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprize, every expanded prospect.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)
“I am willing to pledge myself that if the time should ever come that the voluntary agencies of the country together with the local and state governments are unable to find resources with which to prevent hunger and suffering ... I will ask the aid of every resource of the Federal Government.... I have the faith in the American people that such a day will not come.”
—Herbert Hoover (1874–1964)