I

In her biography of Dr. Armstrong Lois Smith Douglas commented on some of the many awards Dr. A. received beginning in 1912:

“The year 1921 was the six-hundredth anniversary of the death of the great Dante. Dr. Armstrong  was named one of a national committee of fifty to arrange for proper commemoration of the date…

“With the recognition of Dr. Armstrong’s work on Robert Browning came invitations to membersip in various Browning Societies over the country, e.g., Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Pasadena, Kansas City and many others…

“The first listing of Dr. Armstrong in Who’s Who in America appeared in 1922 and the column space was expanded several times after that first date…

“Dr. Armstrong “collected” many honorary degrees. The most recent, Doctor of Humane Letteres, from Shurtleff College in Alton, Illinois…

“(In addition to all his other activities) Dr. A taught the Baraca Class (Men) at First Baptist Church for approximately thirty years… (Only) acceptance of the task of raising money for the construction of the “Browning library” forced him to relinquish his much beloved class…

“On October 23, 1935 the (women’s) Literature Survey Class presented a head and shoulders bust of Dr. A to Baylor University (He taught the group of nearly 100 women for almost 25 years). (The bust, by Bonnie MacLeary, now resides in the ABL&M’s Hankamer Treasure Room.)

“Carl Sandburg, poet and friend of the Armstrongs, wrote:

Dr. Armstrong is one of the sturdy and indefatigable figures in American cultural life, so it seems to some of us who know him and his work. His labors in the Browning field have a monumental dimension and will long endure. As a friend of American poets he is among the outstanding and significant, worthy of the bronze in which you memorialize him.”