2. A message from
The Chairman
Greetings, friends!
What is the Armstrong International Cultural Foundation?
We are an international humanitarian organization
dedicated to serving the cultural and educational needs of
people everywhere. The concept behind all of the
foundation’s goals and activities is twofold:
1) that man is a unique being, possessing vast mental,
physical and spiritual potentials—the development of which
should be aided and encouraged, and
2) that it is the responsibility of all men to attend to and care
for the needs of their fellow men, a precept professed by the
vast majority of religions of the world—appropriately summed
up in three biblical words: “Love thy neighbor.”
Out of this understanding we seek to aid and support
projects around the world without respect to race or religion.
Gerald Flurry, Founder and Chairman
ARMSTRONGI N T E R N A T I O N A L C U L T U R A L
FOUNDATION
5. Herbert W. Armstrong was recognized and respected by leaders in government, industry and education around the
world. Until the time of his death, he was pastor general of the Worldwide Church of God and editor in chief of the
Plain Truth magazine, which he began publishing in 1934. In 1947 Mr. Armstrong founded Ambassador College in
Pasadena, California. He was also founder and chairman of the Ambassador International Cultural Foundation, known for
its cultural, charitable and humanitarian activities.
In his internationally broadcast messages to the public and his numerous personal meetings with kings, presidents, prime
ministers, ambassadors and other leaders of government, Herbert Armstrong plainly exposed the real causes of, and the
ultimate solutions to, the problems facing human civilization.
Millions—and the leaders of millions—were listening.
A prolific author, educator, philanthropist and minister, Mr. Armstrong was received globally as an “ambassador for world
peace without portfolio.” Highly honored by heads of state in such critical areas as Japan and China, black and South
Africa, Israel and Egypt, his vast efforts to promote peace and understanding through the Ambassador International
Cultural Foundation, Ambassador College and the Worldwide Church of God left a lasting impact on individuals and
leaders of nations the world over. Even in his 90s, Mr. Armstrong continued to write, broadcast and preach the good news
that world peace is coming.
United States President Ronald Reagan summed up the sentiments of church members and non-members alike upon the
news of Mr. Armstrong’s death in January 1986: “Mr. Armstrong contributed to sharing the word of the Lord with his
community and with people throughout the nation. You can take pride in his legacy.”
Sadly, those to whom Mr. Armstrong entrusted that legacy did not value it. Soon, it became apparent that, in order to preserve
Mr. Armstrong’s teachings and legacy, a new work had to be raised up. The Armstrong International Cultural Foundation was
founded for that very purpose—to carry on the work and vision of a man who dedicated his life to serving God and humanity.
can take pride in his legacy.”
U.S. President Ronald Reagan
6. Ambassador
for World Peace
During the last 20 years of his
life, Herbert W. Armstrong
met personally with dozens of
heads of state and other leading
officials in government, education
and industry, discussing domestic
and world problems.
His visits with national leaders
often led to appearances before
audiences of thousands in many
world capitals.
In his meetings, Mr. Armstrong
spoke dynamically and plainly
about the causes and ultimate
solution to the problems
threatening humanity.
“Peace is coming,” he wrote, “in
spite of 6,000 years of human
suffering. In spite of world leaders’
inability to achieve peace. The
lessons of history have been
written in pain, anguish, failures,
frustrations and human blood and
death. Experience has been a
costly teacher—but mankind has
not learned that lesson.”
Mr. Armstrong delivered the
good news that world peace will
indeed come. He taught millions
the way of life that will lead to
that happy outcome.
p Arriving at No. 10
Downing Street for a
meeting with British Prime
Minister Margaret Thatcher.
t Climbing aboard the
Gulfstream II aircraft on
one of numerous trips in
the 1970s to visit world
leaders.
R emembering the legac
7. legac y of herbert w . A rmstrong
“For every effect there has to be a cause,” Mr. Armstrong wrote.
“Our human society has never yet found ‘the way’ and put into
motion ‘the way’ that would cause world peace. Humanity has failed
for 6,000 years to discover the cause of the world’s colossal evils—
its wretchedness, unhappiness and suffering. The answer has been
available, yet science has never discovered it. Education has never
taught it. Religion doesn’t understand it.”
Mr. Armstrong discussed this way of life with the leaders he met:
the way of unselfish, outgoing concern that leads to peace, happiness
and the abundant life. This way of life has been taught and put into
living practice at Herbert W. Armstrong College. The cultural and
educational projects of the Armstrong International Cultural
Foundation also reflect this way of giving and service to others.
Mr. Armstrong is greeted by U.S. First Lady Nancy Reagan at the
White House (left). His Majesty King Hussein (bottom left) happily
greets Mr. Armstrong in Amman, Jordan; the two shared a close
personal friendship for many years. Chinese Premier Deng Xiaoping
(bottom middle) welcomes Mr. Armstrong as the first leader from
Christianity to be invited to speak before leaders of the People’s
Republic of China. (Below) Mr. Armstrong shows Japanese Prime
Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone an issue of the Plain Truth magazine.
8. t Prime Minister Golda Meir
receives a gift of Steuben
crystal from Mr. Armstrong in
her Knesset office in 1971.
p With Prime Minister Yitzhak
Rabin in 1976. Mr. Armstrong
wrote that they spoke about
“the two jet planes that
have more or less ‘commut-
ed’ between Jerusalem and
Cairo, and he was candid in
telling us of Secretary
Kissinger’s peace accom-
plishments. He was very
appreciative of my efforts
toward world peace ... my
friendships with Arab chiefs
of state, and efforts toward a
better approach to harmony
and understanding between
them and Israel.”
p The beloved President Zalman Shazar of
Israel was the first head of state to receive Mr.
Armstrong. The two met in Jerusalem in 1968.
Ambassador
to Israel
Herbert W. Armstrong first visited Israel in the
summer of 1956, taking pictures of various
biblical sites for the Plain Truth magazine. By
1968 he had forged close friendships with many
Israeli leaders that lasted the rest of his life.
p With Transportation Minister Moshe Kol at a
dinner in Mr. Armstrong’s honor in the early 1980s.
Minister Kol once said, “I think that two men are
competing now in traveling between the
countries in the world, Kissinger and Armstrong.”
9. p With Prime Minister Menachem Begin in 1980. Mr. Begin
left a critical Tel Aviv meeting for the private visit. When Mr.
Armstrong mentioned how considerate it was for the prime
minister to make this special effort, he answered, “Mr.
Armstrong, I would rise up in the middle of the night to see
you.” The meeting ended in an affectionate bear hug.
t Israel President Titzhak
Navon receives a per-
sonal protocol gift from
Mr. Armstrong in Novem-
ber 1981, just after Egyp-
tian President Anwar
Sadat’s assassination.
t Mr. Armstrong had
flown to Jerusalem direct
from Cairo, where he
met with Sadat’s widow
and the new Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak.
t Mr. Armstrong worked
passionately to assist
peaceful relations
between Israel and Egypt.
With President Sadat
about a year before his
assassination.
10. p An Ambassador
College student wheels a
load of soil across the dig
site at the southern
Temple Mount archaeo-
logical excavation.
t (Far left) Mr. Armstrong
visits the archaeological
site with Professor Mazar
early in their long part-
nership.
t Mr. Armstrong and
Jerusalem Mayor Teddy
Kollek walk arm-in-arm, a
Jewish custom among
close friends. Mayor Kollek
and Mr. Armstrong shared
a close personal friend-
ship for many years.
A Friend of
Jerusalem
In 1968, Israel’s preeminent archeolo-
gist and the former president of
Hebrew University, Professor Benjamin
Mazar, undertook the most important
dig in Israeli history, excavating the
southern wall of the Temple Mount.
Professor Mazar offered a 50/50 joint
participation in the project to Ambas-
sador College at a private luncheon in
the Knesset, where Minister of Tourism
Moshe Kol proposed they “build an iron
bridge that can never be broken.”
The next day, at an official ceremony
in the presidential palace, Mr. Arm-
strong accepted. The partnership
lasted for nearly two decades.
11. p Children cluster around Mr. Armstrong in
Jerusalem’s Liberty Bell Park, which he helped
build at Mayor Kollek’s request. A special section
was dedicated as “A Children’s Playground” in
honor of Mr. Armstrong.
u A plaque at the International Cultural Center
for Youth in Jerusalem dedicated to Mr. Arm-
strong. He enthusiastically supported the center,
which provides a meeting place for youth and
fosters cultural rapport and religious tolerance.
p Professor Mazar presents a gift to Herbert W. Armstrong at an honorary
dinner hosted by the Japanese Ambassador to Israel in 1974. The two men
enjoyed a close friendship for many years as Professor Mazar’s work continued
at the southern wall of the Temple Mount.
12. Passing
the Baton
Excavations in Jerusalem under the joint
participation of Hebrew University and
Ambassador College were completed in
1985. In 1986, Eilat Mazar, Benjamin Mazar’s
granddaughter, resumed excavations at
the Temple Mount, focusing on the First
Temple period at the eastern part of the
site. She continued her grandfather’s
legacy throughout the 1990s.
When Herbert Armstrong died in 1986,
those to whom he entrusted Ambassador
College and the Worldwide Church of
God (wcg) rejected his legacy. In 1995, the
college closed and the campuses were
eventually sold. All of the humanitarian
and cultural activities of the Ambassador
Foundation ceased.
The Philadelphia Church of God broke
away from the wcg in 1989 to keep Mr.
Armstrong’s legacy and work alive. In
2001, the scattered remnants of his loyal
supporters raised up Herbert W. Armstrong
College in Edmond, Oklahoma. The
liberal arts college is patterned after
Ambassador College.
In 2006, when news came that Eilat
Mazar had uncovered King David’s palace,
Armstrong College officials offered to
renew the partnership, and the baton
symbolically passed to a new generation.
13. tt (Opposite page) Ambassador College
students participate in the “Big Dig” south
of the Temple Mount in the 1970s.
(This page) Herbert W. Armstrong Col-
lege students sift through finds and chip
away at a stone formation south of the
Temple Mount in Ir David, on the excava-
tion site where Dr. Mazar has uncovered
the ancient palace of King David.
14. Reviving a Legacy
The Armstrong International Cultural
Foundation began in 1996 as the Philadel-
phia Foundation. Early that year, it took over a
project the defunct Ambassador International
Cultural Foundation had left behind:
collaboration with the Al-Hussein Society in
Amman, Jordan. The foundation sent volun-
teers, all members of the Philadelphia Church
of God, to work with physically and mentally
handicapped Jordanian children, reviving the
humanitarian tradition of Herbert W. Arm-
strong. The foundation also lent support to the
Petra National Trust.
Currently, the foundation sponsors several
activities in Jerusalem. It is helping maintain
Liberty Bell Park in the heart of the city, a
project the late Mayor Teddy Kollek started with
the help of Mr. Armstrong.
In 2006, the foundation began supplying
volunteers to Dr. Eilat Mazar’s groundbreaking
excavation of King David’s ancient palace in
Jerusalem.
Dr. Mazar still remembers the close relation-
ship between her grandfather and Mr. Arm-
strong. “Without the support of Mr. Armstrong
and the Ambassadors, the Temple Mount
Excavations would have never become, as it
did, the most important and largest excava-
tions in Israel at that time,” she said. Dr. Mazar,
thrilled with the foundation and college’s offer
to continue the tradition, said she was “excited
to have the Ambassadors back with us.”
the armstrong international
15. p A Herbert W. Arm-
strong College student
meticulously brushes
away debris from a
recent find.
t Student volunteers fill
buckets with assorted
finds and chip away at
the wall of a small well.
tt (Far left) Two
Armstrong College
students (foreground)
help dig through
layers of soil in King
David’s palace.
cultural foundationinternational
16. Chairman Flurry meets with then-mayor
of Jerusalem Uri Lupolianski to discuss the
foundation’s goals in the Eternal City.
In Jerusalem
Armstrong International Cultural Foundation
Chairman Gerald Flurry and staff regularly
travel to Jerusalem to personally investigate
progress on the foundation’s activities.
17. p Mr. Flurry (left) attends a press confer-
ence with Israeli Defense Forces spokesper-
son Lt. Col. (res.) Olivier Rafowicz (right).
p Stephen Flurry, executive director of the founda-
tion and president of Herbert W. Armstrong Col-
lege, is given a personal tour of the dig site by Dr.
Mazar. President Flurry frequently spends summers
in Jerusalem researching biblical history.
tt Chairman Flurry and Professor Mazar (also
pictured at left), a senior fellow at Hebrew University
and the Shalem Center, share a lighter moment at
a 2007 luncheon. The two discussed the progress
and needs of the project.
18. p Ambassador Auditorium was the cultural center-
piece of the Ambassador International Cultural
Foundation in Pasadena, California. Renowned for its
perfect acoustics, Ambassador hosted many of the
world’s great artists, including Joan Sutherland, Isaac
Stern, Beverly Sills, Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin
Philharmonic. The auditorium closed in 1995.
p Patterned after Ambas-
sador, Armstrong Audito-
rium’s lobby is surrounded
by a 48 foot wall of glass,
revealing three chandeliers
trimmed with over 50,000
pieces of Swarovski crystal.
Reviving a
Cultural Legacy
The Armstrong International Cultural
Foundation performing arts series is
patterned after the famed Ambassador
Foundation series, which was hosted in the
Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena,
California (right). Under Herbert Armstrong,
the auditorium, acclaimed as “the Carn-
egie Hall of the West Coast,” hosted dozens
of great artists and musical legends.
When Herbert Armstrong’s successors
discontinued the foundation after his
death, the Philadelphia foundation, as it
was originally named, took up the fallen
baton and began sponsoring a small
concert series in 1998. Since then, the
series has grown significantly and
thousands of patrons have enjoyed
memorable cultural experiences on the
Herbert W. Armstrong College campus.
In 2004, the Foundation obtained some of
the very treasures that were considered the
crown jewels of the Ambassador
Auditorium: a 9-foot Hamburg Steinway
concert grand piano and two Baccarat
crystal candelabra. To house these priceless
artifacts and provide a spectacular concert
venue for central Oklahoma, the
foundation broke ground January 6, 2008,
on Armstrong Auditorium—a $20 million
concert hall modeled after Ambassador.
19. t Two 7-foot Baccarat crystal candelabra stand
in front of onyx walls. Used by the Shah of Iran for
the 2,500-year anniversary of the Persian Empire,
each weighs 650 pounds (295 kg) and consists of
802 pieces handmade in Baccarat, France.
Intimate acoustically and visually, Armstrong’s
main theater has 823 seats and is lined with
American cherry woods that are grained
matched in a two-tone finish.
A concertgoer’s dream, the magnificent Armstrong Auditorium is the new home of the Armstrong International Cultural
Foundation’s performing arts series. Adorned with Swarovski®-trimmed chandeliers, Baccarat crystal candelabra, American
cherry wood veneers, Spanish marble and Persian onyx, the hall’s incomparable acoustics and soaring Swans in Flight
sculpture all combine to set Armstrong Auditorium a cultural jewel in the crown of Edmond, Oklahoma.
20. u Artists who have graced
the foundation’s stage
include (from left to right) Chu
Fang Huang on one of the
foundation’s two Hamburg
Steinway pianos; the Berlin
Philharmonic Wind Ensemble;
the Band of the Irish Guards
and the Argyll and Suther-
land Highlanders of the Royal
Regiment of Scotland, and
the Romeros Guitar Quartet,
among others.
World-Class
Performances
Now in its 13th season, the Armstrong
International Cultural Foundation
performing arts series features a veri-
table “who’s who” of today’s brightest
classical music stars including vocalists
Stephanie Blythe, Frederica von Stade
and Samuel Ramey, pianists André Watts
and the Five Browns, the Berlin Philhar-
monic Wind Quintet, the Academy of
St. Martin in the Fields, the Romeros
Guitar Quartet, the Canadian Brass,
the Vienna Choir Boys and the Russian
National Ballet Theatre, among many
others.
Mission
Statement
The mission of the Armstrong
International Cultural Foundation
performing arts series is to champion
Oklahoma as a world-class center for
the arts by bringing monumental
cultural experiences to the heartland
of America.
ninachoi
21. t Artists performing in the
Armstrong International
Cultural Foundation’s inaugu-
ral concert season in Arm-
strong Auditorium: (from left
to right) the Eroica Trio; the
Academy of St. Martin in the
Fields; Bayanihan Philippine
National Folk Dance Com-
pany; and the Russian
National Ballet Theatre. The
inaugural 2010-2011 season
also features performances
by the Five Browns, André
Watts, the Anderson-Roe
Piano Duo, the Vienna Choir
Boys, the National Philhar-
monic of Poland, and the
Herbert W. Armstrong Col-
lege Choral Union.
bayanihan
mikehoban
randallgreen
22. Education
With Vision
Herbert W. Armstrong College
is a privately supported
coeducational institution offering
two- and four-year scholastic
curricula in theology, liberal arts
and applied arts and sciences.
The institution was founded in
2001 on a 170-acre campus in
north Edmond, Oklahoma.
The curricula and activities at
Herbert W. Armstrong College are
geared toward helping students
achieve their God-given potential.
Students strive to develop every
facet of one’s being: mental,
physical, emotional, psychological
and—most importantly—spiritual.
The Word of God is the foundation
of all knowledge. Thus, the Bible is
used as the foundation of HWAC’s
liberal arts education.
The college has a number of
international students and faculty
members, adding a worldwide
cultural flair to student life.
Through a wide range of
academic, cultural, social and
athletic activities, Armstrong
College students experience the
missing dimension in higher
learning: “education with vision.”
herbert w . armstr ong
23. (Top left) Herbert W. Armstrong
College’s Young Ambassadors is a
musical ensemble, which serves the
college, the church and the local
community. (Above) A graduating
class receives its diplomas. (Far left)
Intramural sports are an important
part of the college experience.
(Left) Students participate in classes
covering a wide range of liberal
arts subjects.
ong college | edmond , okla .
