Brubaker was born in Massachusetts, but moved to Pottstown, Penn. as a child with her brother and sister after their mother was diagnosed with tuberculosis.
“My mother was hospitalized, and my father couldn’t take care of us,” Brubaker said. “I really never knew my father as my parents divorced.”
Brubaker and her siblings ended up moving in with her mother’s brother, who had both a stable job and marriage. Brubaker’s older sister went to Gettysburg college, a few miles away from their uncle’s home. But Brubaker, who wanted to be a nurse, went to Syracuse University in New York.
Not quite 5 feet tall, Brubaker was told she was too short to be a nurse, so she transferred to Gettysburg College and changed her major to political science, another interest.
“I have loved history all of my life,” Brubaker said. “I had no idea what I would do with my degree, but I thought it would be easy and fun. I was thinking about getting married and having a family.”
She met Richard “Dick” Brubaker at Gettysburg. Brubaker was eight days younger than her husband to be and they graduated together at 17 years old. They were married Sept. 17, 1955, after dating all summer.
“Dick took ROTC, was quiet and studious,” Brubaker said. “I loved how he walked very upright and straight.”
After their marriage, the couple moved to Lubbock, Texas so Dick could attend a month-long training for the Air Force. Their first daughter, Patricia “Pat” was born in Lubbock. They started living the military life in earnest as they soon moved to Dover, Del. where daughter Anne was born.
After two years in Dover, they moved to Hawaii.
“We were excited to go to Hawaii,” Brubaker said. “We loved it because it was peaceful and had no big highways at the time.”
Their third daughter, Jill, was born in 1960 in Hawaii. They moved again within a year to McCord Air Force Base in Tacoma, Wash. where their fourth daughter, Jenny, was born. This time, they stayed longer — seven years from 1962- 1969. After a brief tour to Hartford, Conn. where Dick taught ROTC, the family moved to Dayton in 1971.
“When we first came here, I joined the Officer’s Wives Club,” Brubaker said. “The director of the then-newly opened Air Force Museum (now the National Museum of the United States Air Force) called our director to ask if any of us would like to give guided tours to school kids.”
And the rest is history. Brubaker recently celebrated 50 years of volunteering for one of her favorite places in the world. Throughout those five decades, she has volunteered as a tour guide, as an office worker and at the information desk.
“I didn’t know anything about the museum when we first moved here,” Brubaker said. “I loved learning all about it and made so many new friends. All the wives did it together, so it was a lot of fun.”
Brubaker has seen many changes to the museum over the years, from additions of new buildings to exhibits. She says her favorite time period of Air Force history is the early years of World War II, which happened when she was still in grade school.
The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force is the world’s largest and oldest military aviation museum and started in 1923 in a small corner of an aircraft hangar at McCook Field near downtown. Since then the collection has grown from informal showings of World War 1 planes and equipment to more than 360 aerospace vehicles and missiles, along with thousands of aviation artifacts. Admission is still free, and the museum welcomes 800,000 visitors annually.
Now 89-years old and living in the same home she and her husband built in Riverside in 1972, Brubaker is still active, volunteering at the museum three days a week for about five hours each day.
And on Nov. 12, Brubaker was honored for her years of service with the Ivonette Wright Miller award, which recognizes one lifetime volunteer in service of aviation heritage. The award was named in honor of Wilber and Orville Wright’s niece.
Credit: JUSTIN SPIVEY
Credit: JUSTIN SPIVEY
“I love it because people come to the museum from all over the world.” Brubaker said. “I talk to so many people and they are so excited to see the museum. They come to Dayton just for that. And I love telling people stories that they have never heard before and will never hear from anyone else.”
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