Armes thankful for his time at Wayland

PLAINVIEW—Paul Armes sits at the small conference table in the corner of his third-floor president’s office in Gates Hall on the Wayland Baptist University campus. The Kenneth Wyatt original painting “House Call” hangs above the table. A grandfather clock, donated to the university in memory of his mother, chimes its hourly song.

Armes will leave Wayland in a few weeks, but plenty of work remains, as evidenced by the paperwork piled on his desk, along with his day planner—open and full. The bookshelf is packed with books and filled with frogs—a favorite collectible.

The 12th president of Wayland Baptist University looks around his office.

“It’s time,” he said. “Nothing here is in any way pushing us away. No one has ever encouraged us to do this. Everyone has been extraordinarily gracious and kind in their response to us. But it’s time.”

Armes will retire effective June 30, leaving behind the university he has served 15 years. His last official duty as president was conducting graduation ceremonies May 7, but he will continue to work through June to accomplish a few personal goals and fulfill some commitments to which he feels obligated.

Years of growth and expansion

Since he was named president in 2001, Wayland’s budget has grown from $25 million to $65 million. Enrollment reached a record high of 6,834 students in 2012. Davis Hall, Jimmy Dean Hall and the Laney Student Activities Center all opened.

Wayland developed a Mission Center in Kenya, where it began offering courses and a religion degree. The School of Music reached All-Steinway School status. Wayland added numerous academic programs to its curriculum, including the doctor of management degree with classes beginning later this year.

Knowing it took a lot of work from a lot of people, Armes is slow to claim credit for any of it.

“The thing I would say that I will always remember about my 15 years at Wayland is that I was surrounded by wonderful folks who worked really hard,” he said. “And together as a team, as a family, including the entire university family, we took some really positive steps in really positive directions.”

Impact of a Christian university

Looking back, Armes said, the people always will be his fondest memories—not just the ones he worked with, but the ones he came in contact with throughout the last 15 years.

“I remember early in my tenure, going to Sierra Vista to participate in commencement,” he said. “I was the speaker that day.”

During a conversation after a commencement ceremony, a new graduate told Wayland Baptist University President Paul Armes the required classes in biblical history she took changed her life.After the ceremony, a new graduate named Paula approached Armes to ask about the medallion he wore. The question sparked a conversation that resulted in Paula telling him her story.

As a nontraditional student, she didn’t want to attend Wayland, because she would be required to take six hours of biblical history to graduate. Wayland’s price and schedule, however, were the best fit for her. So, she reluctantly registered to attend. Little did she expect the effect those two Bible courses would have on her life.

“She really came to the point of understanding that what she considered to be faith in her life wasn’t,” Armes said. “At the end of the New Testament class, (campus Dean Jeff Barnes) prayed with her, and she prayed to receive Christ.”

As a result of her decision, she witnessed to her family. Both her children made commitments to Christ, and her husband made a recommitment of his life to Christ. After telling her story, Paula told Armes never to stop requiring those six hours of biblical history.

“That’s really who and what we are,” Armes said. “That is the unique element of Wayland that you can’t always find at other locations and in other schools.”

Never expected to leave the pastorate

Those types of stories have fueled Armes, who never expected to work in higher education. He surrendered to the ministry as a teenager and never saw his career taking him out of the pastorate—especially not into a role in higher education.

“I was not a stellar student in college,” he said. “I did OK but not exceptional.”

That changed when he entered seminary. Armes understood that to be a better pastor, he should be a teaching pastor. To that end, he sought a doctor of philosophy degree at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth.

The pastorate eventually led him to First Baptist Church in Corpus Christi. While there, he served on the board for San Marcos Baptist Academy, a preparatory boarding school affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

As the president of San Marcos Academy prepared to retire, several members of the board approached Armes, asking him to resign as a trustee so they could consider him for the president’s position.

“I did resign,” Armes said. “I wanted to give them a fair opportunity to consider me, and I wanted a fair opportunity to consider the possibility.”

Armes said he and his wife, Duanea, loved the church in Corpus Christi, where they had served eight and a half years, and they were not looking to leave. As they prayed about the decision, they did not feel led to pursue the position at San Marcos. But the board was persistent, returning two more times to talk to him.

“We decided we hadn’t prayed quite enough about it,” he said. “As we prayed and thought and reflected, it became clear to us that it was exactly what God wanted us to do.”

Armes accepted the post, and five years later, the Wayland board of trustees asked him to interview for the president’s job at the Plainview campus. At that time, Wallace Davis was moving into a chancellor’s position to oversee the Wayland system. The president’s position would oversee operations of the Plainview campus.

Armes accepted the position in 2001. A year later, Davis retired, and the board of trustees opted to return to a system in which the president oversees the entire Wayland system.

“In a way, all of this has kind of been a surprise to me,” he said. “I never sought to be an educator. I’m still a pastor at heart.”

Looking back and moving forward

Looking back on the last 15 years, Armes wishes he could have raised another $50 million for the university and seen the completion of a new Flores Bible Building. He also wishes he would have done more to celebrate the successes of the university family throughout the years.

“I’m not sure I’ve always celebrated the good things that we have done as a university—not me, but the university—maybe as dramatically or as significantly as we needed to,” he said. “I’m just aware of the fact that everything I have done has been dynamically linked to very special people who I have walked beside—who have given so much of their lives to this university, who have done superb work that I am proud of. But there are times as a university that you ought to celebrate. When good things happen, you need to acknowledge those.”

As retirement grows closer, the Armeses already have begun making plans—mostly revolving around their five grandchildren.

“I would just like to be a part of their lives. I would like to be able to interact with them, and Duanea would, too,” he said. “Duanea is such a wonderful grandmother. She is better at her job than I am at mine.”

Wayland President Paul Armes insists he cannot overstate the contributions of his wife, Duanea.Armes credits much of his success to his wife, and he gets emotional talking about how their relationship has grown over the past 15 years.

“The delight of the love that we have for each other and the dependence that we have on each other and on the Lord in this journey, particularly at Wayland, has been something that we have learned and experienced together,” he said. “We are closer now than we have ever been. If you had asked if that would have been possible 25 years ago, I would have said absolutely not. But we have grown together.”

Along with traveling and grandchildren, Armes hopes to preach more in retirement. He sees it as an important part of his calling to ministry, and he hasn’t been able to preach as much as he would have liked in recent years.

As for Wayland, he feels that university is on the verge of a prosperous period. He also expects Wayland to remain a beacon for Christian higher education.

“This is a place where life-changing conversations happen—not just about knowledge, but about the spiritual dynamic of life. About a person’s relationship with Christ. About what God’s plan is for life,” he said.

“Those conversations happen every day in classrooms, the cafeteria and other locations. I’m proud of that fact.”