Arvella Schuller, wife of Crystal Cathedral founder, dead at 84

[KentB3]

Arvella Schuller, wife of Crystal Cathedral founder, dead at 84


By Nicole Santa Cruz, L.A. Times
February 11, 2014, 12:51 p.m.

Arvella Schuller, the wife of the founder of the “Hour of Power” and Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, died Tuesday morning at UCI Medical Center.

Schuller, 84, was hospitalized after a short illness, said John Charles, the chief operating officer for Crystal Cathedral Ministries.

In a statement, her grandson, Bobby V. Schuller, said she died “peacefully of natural causes.”

Together, the Rev. Robert H. Schuller and Arvella Schuller were the driving forces behind the “Hour of Power” and the Crystal Cathedral church.

When Schuller started a drive-in church in Garden Grove in 1955, Arvella played the organ. When the small church grew into the Crystal Cathedral, she coordinated the music for the services and produced the “Hour of Power.”

At one point, the audience for the television show was estimated at 20 million.

“She was the power behind the hour, you know,” Charles said.

In 2011, the ministry sold its 10,000-paned church in Garden Grove to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange in bankruptcy proceedings. The ministry moved to another church in Garden Grove and is now known as Shepherd's Grove.

Arvella is survived by her husband, her son, Robert A. Schuller, and her daughters, Sheila Coleman, Jeanne Dunn, Carol Milner and Gretchen Penner.

The family is planning a private memorial service.

[DizneyRox]

I read this twice and both times all I could hear was the teacher from Charlie Brown. What does this have to do with anything normally talked about here on Icot?

[MNNHFLTX]

I read this twice and both times all I could hear was the teacher from Charlie Brown. What does this have to do with anything normally talked about here on Icot?

It would be relevant to those who used to watch the "Hour of Power" show.

[The Hitchhiking Ghost]

My connection is that her husband Robert was born in the same podunk little town in Iowa that my mom was born in. My mom used to always say, his name is pronounced "skuller" in the Dutch, not "shoe-ler"

[mickclub1955]

The church was right down the road from Disneyland.