Rollin and Mary Anne Armour Papers

Collection

Identifier: MU-PP-0185

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The collection is comprised of five series. Series 1 contains a small amount of papers related to the personal lives of the Armour Family. Series 2 contains course materials, research, notes, and correspondence from the academic and theological career of Rollin Armour. Series 3 contains articles, worksheets, and research from the counseling career of Mary Anne Armour. Series 4 contains correspondence, papers, and business materials from the Georgia Children’s Home. Series 5 contains planning notes and correspondence, invitations, brochures, and some speech notes from the Armour Family Therapy Lecture Series.

Note: Some materials in Series 3 and 4 contain content about difficult topics, including child abuse and sexual abuse.

Dates

Creation: 1960-2009

Creator

Armour, Mary Anne C., 1929-2017 (Person)
Armour, Rollin S., 1929-2018 (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Unrestricted access. All requests subject to limitations noted in departmental policies on reproduction.

Rights Statement

To quote in print, or otherwise reproduce in whole or in part in any publication, including on the World Wide Web, any material from this collection, the researcher must obtain permission from (1) the owner of the physical property and (2) the holder of the copyright. Persons wishing to quote from this collection should consult the reference archivist to determine copyright holders for information in this collection. Reproduction of any item must contain the complete citation to the original.

Biographical / Historical

Rollin Armour was born in Miami, Florida, on December 5, 1929, and died on March 2, 2018, in Ponce Inlet, Florida. Mary Anne Crum was born on June 27, 1929, and died on September 3, 2017, in Ponce Inlet, Florida. Rollin and Mary Anne married and together they had three children: Ellen, Rollin Jr. (“Rod”), and Stephen. Rollin and Mary were both members of the First Baptist Church of Christ in Macon, Georgia.

Rollin graduated with a B.A. from Baylor University in 1950, a B.D. from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1953, a S.T.M. from Harvard University in 1956, and a Th.D. from Harvard University in 1963. In addition to his studies, Rollin was a U.S. Army Chaplain (1st Lt.) from 1953 to 1955 with service in Korea. His professional positions included being Professor of Religion at Stetson University (1960-1973) and Auburn University (1973-1980), Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Mercer University (1980-1984), and Professor of Christianity at Mercer University (1980 until retirement in 1999). Rollin published and edited several works on Christianity and was also a member of the Southern Baptist Historical Commission from 1967 to 1973. During the same period, Rollin was a Curator for the Florida Baptist Historical Society and was involved in several committees about the study of religion.

Mary Anne earned a B.S. from the University of Kentucky in 1950 and her M.A. from Stetson University. Later, she was an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at the Mercer University School of Medicine from 1982 until her retirement in 1998. Following her retirement from Mercer, Mary Anne continued her marriage and family therapy practice at the Psychiatric Center on Arlington Place in Macon, Georgia. In addition, Mary Anne joined the staff of the Georgia Children’s Home in October of 1999. In 2000, Mary Anne and Rollin gave an endowed gift to Mercer University for a series of counseling related lectures called the “Mary Anne and Rollin Armour Family Therapy Lecture Series.”