2003 Presentation of the Kenneth A. White, Jr. Distinguished Business Officer Award to Terry Armstrong

Following directly in the footsteps of Ken White, Terry saw a need and brought his resources and determination to bear to fill that need. The need was for an organization to serve all Independent School Business Officers and to do so in a new way that would benefit those from the smallest to the largest schools. While Terry did not accomplish this alone, his drive, determination and sheer willpower made it happen. Many were willing to follow, but at that point in time, Terry was willing to lead.


I had been looking forward to this moment for some time now, and with great relish, for while I can think of no one more deserving of this honor, I feel obliged to let you know who Terry Armstrong really is, up close and somewhat personal.

Over the past five years Terry Armstrong has been instrumental in the founding of two organizations. You know, of course, about NBOA. The other is Sage Hill School, the first non-denominational 9-12 independent school in Orange County, California. Most of you know him as a good colleague, through your ListServe and from various conferences; we know him, however, far more intimately. For we experience him daily. We are here to tell you that like vintage wine, Terry is an acquired taste!

I first got to know Terry when visiting Sidwell Friends in 1998, where he was assistant head. I knew he was extraordinarily competent, that he had developed a reputation of near mythic proportions. He was one of those anomalies a Frank Perdue it-takes-a-tough-man-to-make-tender-school kind of guy. After all, anyone who could have engineered the tearing down and rebuilding of an entire upper school of 450 students between June and September of a single year in a Quaker context where virtually every adult is empowered and encouraged to speak their own brand of truth to power had to be very special indeed.

As I searched for our founding business manager at Sage Hill School, I knew instinctively that Terry was our guy! We had huge needs a $30 million dollar campus to build in fourteen months and an operational infrastructure to put into place that would be our foundation for all time. We needed someone who could not only swim with the sharks, but who also was a sucker for a challenge. After an intense courtship, he took the plunge!

I thought I knew what we were getting. Yet, in spite of all the reference checks and delving into his past, I was hopelessly unprepared for what lay ahead. This is how the first week went:

On day one he taught me Yancey's Three Laws of Espionage:

• that all covert actions are discovered.
• that anyone who will lie for you will lie to you.
• and that anyone who will steal for you will steal from you.

Oh, boy!!!

On day two I learned that the only ship that leaks from the top is the ship of state. On day three he taught me the Admiral's Law that anything is possible for he who doesn't have to do it. And on day four I learned the most critical lesson of all never disagree with him in front of others. I wanted a control freak, and I got one! This was shaping up to be the makings of a long, very strange trip!

In the ensuing weeks we all found out what we had suspected, but were quietly denying this was a scary person a sentiment universally held by both staff members and trustees alike. He had developed the fine art of saying no and laughing at you all at once, a persona that enabled him to work without human interference, without interruption, for days on end. Staff members, board members, transforming donors to the school, captains of industry, it didn't matter he had them all intimidated.

While the rest of us traveled in a world of bewildering and complex interpersonal relations, Terry's was one of splendid isolation. He would even repair periodically to his bachelor pad, equipped as best we can tell as a wine cellar and as a small stadium to watch British soccer. There he would think through a problem on his own, iron out all the wrinkles, and only then come to us for our perspective.

He delighted in the role of Lone Ranger contrarian. Terry would brag that only three percent of people on the planet shared his Myers-Briggs profile something to do with being an introverted thinker, intuitive and judgmental; I'm not really sure. But I do know that every other person in the entire school is his polar opposite. From day one it has been Terry versus the world, with Terry always coming out on top.

I suspect that his accomplishments at Sage Hill mirror his accomplishments with NBOA. He has kept us centered. He has planned. He has held the line. He has been unusually creative. He has built the campus on time and under budget, a feat no Orange County entrepreneur could claim in any home improvement project. He has successfully navigated the litigious and strange currents of California. And, he has been a powerful and responsive mentor to our younger administrators.

What is most special about Terry, however, is most likely what is most special about each and every one of you: that you steward your school's financial and physical resources in order to maximize every discretionary dollar for educational purposes, to go directly to teachers and students. That is, after all, where the real action is in our schools.

As much as we hate to admit it, we all have learned from Terry, far more than we may realize. So my tribute to Terry is really a tribute to all of you who toil in relative obscurity, who do your jobs so well in our independent schools.

And, please, keep this covert thought from leaking out: behind that cock-sure-don't-mess-with-me-facade, there lives a wonderfully sensitive guy a real softee at heart.