billy graham center archives
2003 annual report
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The Year of Torrey

Roger Van Ooster (head of Moody Bible Institute's library), Walter Osborn (Moody archivist), and Bob holding the CDs and microfilm containing the copies of the Torrey family diaries donated to MBI

In 1903, Reuben Archer Torrey Sr.was one of the best known known evangelists in the United States. He was in the midst of three years of overseas preaching missions, mostly in England and Scotland. After his return in 1905, he held campaigns in most of the major cities of the United States. He had already played a crucial role in the development of Moody Bible Institute and would play similar roles in the founding of the Bible Institute of los Angeles (BIOLA) and Montrose Bible Conference. He held two major urban pastorates: Moody Memorial Church of Chicago and the Church of the Open Door in Los Angeles. And he was a major contributors, as editor and author, to The Fundamentals, a series of publications that helped define American protestant Fundamentalism.

The year 2003 was the year of Torrey for the BGC Archives due to four events:
Wayne, on left, giving the microfilm of the Torrey diaries to Rodney Vliet (director of BIOLA's library) and Sue Whitehead (BIOLA archivist).