Arvella Schuller dies at 84; wife of Crystal Cathedral founder Robert Schuller

Though the Rev. Robert H. Schuller was the face of the once-global "Hour of Power" television ministry, he was never alone. His wife, Arvella, was always behind the scenes, working to make sure everything ran smoothly.

Arvella Schuller, who served as a producer of the television show and was one of the main creative forces of the Crystal Cathedral, died Tuesday at UC Irvine Medical Center in Orange after a brief illness. She was 84.

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

"She was definitely the power behind the hour," said Marc Riley, who started working with the Crystal Cathedral in 1994 as a musical assistant.

She was born Arvella DeHaan on July 29, 1929, and raised in Orange City, Iowa. She was an organ student at Hope College in Michigan when she met her future husband. The Schullers would marry in 1950 and move to Southern California in 1955 to start a drive-in Christian church in Garden Grove.

Arvella was the organist, and her husband preached from the roof of a snack bar.

As the church grew into a multimillion-dollar empire, including the construction of the 10,000-glass-paned Crystal Cathedral in 1980, Arvella took on multiple roles. She served as an executive producer and program director for the "Hour of Power" and helped develop numerous programs within the church, including the 24-hour crisis line.

More recently, the church had fallen into hard times and filed for bankruptcy. Arvella was a familiar fixture in the courtroom during the proceedings, which eventually ended with the sale of the Crystal Cathedral campus to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange in 2011.

At one point, the audience for the television show started in 1970 was estimated at 20 million. The show is now broadcast from the congregation's new location at Shepherd's Grove church in Garden Grove, with the Schullers' grandson Bobby as pastor.

"She was a natural leader, a strong leader," Riley said. "When there was a decision to be made, she made it without hesitation."

See the article here:
Arvella Schuller dies at 84; wife of Crystal Cathedral founder Robert Schuller