Point Reyes Light - November 10, 2004
Ex-teacher at Union School dies in Point Reyes at 88
By Larken Bradley
A retired educator, Lee Armbruster who had taught the children of Petaluma ranchers at the historic one-room Union School on the Point Reyes-Petaluma Road, died Monday, Oct. 18, at Stockstill House in Point Reyes Station, the result of numerous afflictions. She was 88.
A Petaluma resident for most of her life, she’d lived at Stockstill House for the last six months.
Born in Hayward on Oct. 10, 1916, Lee Fink was the youngest of eight children whose father died before she was born. At age three her mother moved her brood to Petaluma and opened a chicken ranch there on family property.
After graduating from Petaluma High School young Lee attended San Francisco State College, earning a bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 1938.
She returned to Petaluma and began her teaching career at Union School located in Marin County near the Sonoma County border.
Lost wallet, lands husband
While still a new teacher she met her future husband, Bob Armbruster. After leaving her wallet at the Petaluma filling station where he pumped gas, he returned her billfold and asked her for a date. They married in 1940.
In the course of a teaching career that spanned 30 years, Mrs. Armbruster went from Union School to Pepper Free Kindergarten, one of the few privately endowed public schools in California.
After the preschool’s Victorian property on Liberty Street in Petaluma was condemned, she was instrumental in planning its new curriculum and designing the building that remains in operation on F Street in Petaluma.
Mrs. Armbruster also helped found Happy Day Preschool at First Presbyterian Church in Petaluma, and later returned to Union School where she continued teaching until her retirement in 1978.
"She loved her students," said her daughter, Nancy Hemmingway of Point Reyes Station.
‘Feisty and funny’
Described by her daughter as feisty and funny, Mrs. Armbruster enjoyed planting flowers, cultivating seeds and playing bridge. She was a charter member of the Petaluma chapter of the American Association of University Women. She was active in the Fuchsia Society, the Petaluma Garden Club and the Community Concert Association.
Mrs. Armbruster’s husband of 63 years, an insurance agent who advertised his business with a billboard posted on Highway 101 north of Petaluma, died last year at age 88.
She is survived by her daughters, Nancy Hemmingway of Point Reyes Station; Marilyn Armbruster of Sacramento; son, George Robert Armbruster Jr., both of Sacramento; sister, Elsie Harris of Sebastopol; grandsons, Owen Mitchell of Petaluma; Drew Mitchell of Point Reyes Station; and Max Pone of Sacramento; granddaughter, Beth Armbruster of Monte Rio; and great-granddaughter, Lily Mitchell of Petaluma.
The family has suggested that any memorial contributions be made to Stockstill House Assisted Living, PO Box 1031, Point Reyes Station 94956.