W. Warren Armstrong, 82, of Allentown, died March 17, 2017.

A longtime advertising executive, he started Armstrong Marketing Services, a full-service advertising and marketing agency in April 1973, and ran it for 38 years until April 2011, when he retired.

Prior to founding his own agency, he was director of marketing at Mary MacIntosh Services Inc., a dry-cleaning services business based in Allentown and which had six plants in Northeastern Pennsylvania and Miami, Fla.

He joined Mary MacIntosh in 1972 after working nine years at Lieberman Associates Inc., an advertising agency in Allentown where he had risen to senior vice president and partner.

Born Feb. 1, 1935, in his grandparents’ home in Moorestown, N.J., he was the son of William W. Armstrong and Helen Lloyd.

He had two brothers, J. Scott, of Drexel Hill, and H. Lloyd, of New Orleans, La.; and one sister, Helen “Bonnie” Lilly, who died in 2011.

He attended Dickinson College, Carlisle, from 1953-55, played basketball there as a freshman and it was where he was inducted into the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity in 1954.

He joined the U.S. Air Force in October 1955. After his honorable discharge from the Air Force in September 1957, he enrolled at the Pennsylvania State University, beginning an association with an institution he dearly loved until his death.

He graduated from Penn State with a Bachelor of Arts degree in advertising from the School of Journalism in June 1960 and went to work as a sales promotion writer for Pennsylvania Power & Light Co., Allentown.

He married Linda Eileen Lovett Nov. 24, 1962, in her hometown of Rochester, N.Y.

They raised their three sons in Allentown.

He and his wife were longtime members of the Episcopal Church of the Mediator.

Loquacious and quick with a smile, he threw himself into the civic life of Allentown through organizations such as the Rotary Club, Sales and Marketing Executives of Allentown-Bethlehem, Lehigh Valley Hospital, the Scottish Society of the Lehigh Valley, the Adult Literacy Center of the Lehigh Valley, Cedar Crest College and his beloved Penn State.

He was one of the founders of the Allentown campus of Penn State in 1968.

He helped organize Allentown’s bicentennial celebration in 1962.

A longtime season ticket-holder for Penn State football, he spent many fall weekends tailgating outside Beaver Stadium and living and dying with the team’s fortunes in the stands.

For many years, he expressed pride over how few home games he had missed – including one against the University of Pittsburgh for his own wedding and another for the wedding of one of his sons.

He attended his last Penn State game (also against Pitt) in September 2016.

His other hobbies included golf, gourmet cooking and photography.

In addition to his wife of 54 years, he is survived by sons Michael Warren of Havertown, Delaware County, John Philip of Bethlehem, and Andrew Stuart of York; and four grandsons.

Services will be at 10:30 a.m. March 25 in the Episcopal Church of the Mediator, 1620 W. Turner St., Allentown.

Call 5:30-8:30 p.m. Friday in Stephens Funeral Home Inc. 274 North Krocks Road, Allentown.

Interment will be private at the convenience of the family in the Cedar Hill Memorial Park, Allentown.

In lieu of flowers, contributions in his name may be made to the Church of the Mediator, the Literacy Center 1132 Hamilton St. Suite 300, Allentown, PA 18102, or to the College of the Liberal Arts at Penn State, 111 Sparks Building, University Park, PA 16802.