Bob Armbruster ’75 and Beverly Thompson Armbruster ’75 tell a delightful story about the day they met during Homecoming week their junior year at Bridgewater College. The Homecoming theme that year was “Country Komfort,” and one of the days that week students were encouraged to dress to the theme. Beverly said that she and some friends went to the local farm bureau and got pairs of bib overalls to wear, which she noted were not very popular at the time.
“On the day we wore the bib overalls, my roommate and I were walking out of the campus center and this guy walks by us. I put on my best Southern drawl and said, ‘Hi there,’” Beverly said. “He just stood there and laughed at me.”
“At the time I didn’t know Beverly,” Bob added. “I knew her roommate, but not her. But in that moment, Cupid’s arrow hit me.”
Bob choked up a bit while telling his part of the story. Beverly confessed that it took a bit to win her over, but their first date was in January of the following year. They went out to dinner for her birthday at the Holiday Inn at the top of Afton Mountain in Waynesboro, Va., which Beverly said was a popular dating location at the time. They were married in 1976, the year after they both graduated from BC.
Beverly grew up in Fairfax, Va., the oldest of three children. Her parents expected that all three would go to college, and, according to Beverly, their only requirement was that the children stay in Virginia. She knew that she wanted to major in home economics and thought that she would become a teacher or perhaps join the Peace Corps.
During the summer before her senior year, Beverly received an invitation to visit Bridgewater College. Her whole family came for a tour and met the faculty in the home economics department. Beverly said she was so impressed with BC that she didn’t apply anywhere else.
Bob grew up on the east coast of Florida, not far from Orlando, and his parents were youth counselors for the Church of the Brethren. He had attended Brethren Roundtable youth conferences at BC when he was a teenager and has a fond memory of getting a chocolate milkshake in the snack shop that used to be in the lower level of Memorial Hall. His older brother, Ed Armbruster Jr. ’71, and sister-in-law, Barbara Turnham Armbruster ’71, also studied at BC.
Both Bob and Beverly worked while studying at Bridgewater. Bob had a work-study job as the BC sports information director and Beverly worked at the Kline Campus Center information desk and recreation area. She was also a member of Mu Epsilon Mu, the home economics service club, and served in several leadership positions.
After graduation, the couple moved to New Jersey so Bob could work in the ocean shipping and transportation industry in New York City. Beverly earned a master’s degree in home economics at Montclair State University and began her teaching career. They started a family and lived in places including Baltimore; Oslo, Norway; Houston; and Virginia Beach, Va., finally returning to the Shenandoah Valley in 2010.
Over the years, Bob said they did their best to come back to Bridgewater for reunions and stayed connected with former classmates and faculty members.
“We would try to get back here somehow. We couldn’t make it every year, but once we moved back to Virginia in 1988, we got even closer to BC,” Bob said. Beverly added that the College has always been a special place to both of them.
“It is the people that we met, the professors that we had, the connections we made,” Beverly said. “I still get together with people that I met through the home economics department at BC.”
“I just liked my experience at Bridgewater. I learned so much from the lyceums and convocations. I was exposed to music and lectures and plays and things that I might not have otherwise attended,” Bob added.
The Armbrusters are now part of the team organizing their 50th class reunion later this year. In addition to collecting memories and planning a get-together, they are also helping raise money for the Class of 1975 gift: the naming of the third-floor wing of Bowman Hall.
Bob said that the Class of 1975 selected Bowman Hall because of its broad appeal to alumni. Bowman Hall is also a priority within Connections: The Campaign for Bridgewater College.
“Everyone had at least one class there, from science to history to general education requirements,” Beverly said. She recalled a class held in Bowman Hall with a particularly memorable nickname. “Everyone remembers ‘rat lab.’ It was a general education psychology lab held in the basement of Bowman and most of us had to take it.”
Bob said that the class is making progress towards their fundraising goal and hope to have at least 75 members of the Class of 1975 return to campus for Homecoming this fall.
– Heather S. Cole
4/14/25
