Armbrister, Trevor 1933-2006
(Geoffrey Trevor Armbrister)

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born December 4, 1933, in Norwalk, CT; died of pancreatic cancer, March 22, 2006, in Chevy Chase, MD. Journalist and author. Armbrister was well known for his many years writing for Reader's Digest, and for founding the charitable organization Rebuilding Together. Completing a B.A. at Washington and Lee University in 1956, he served in the U.S. Army for four years and achieved the rank of captain. Armbrister worked inpublic relations for a couple years in New York City, then joined the staff at the Saturday Evening Post in 1962 as a contributing editor. He had risen to the post of Washington, DC, bureau chief by 1970, but the magazine went out of business and he moved on to Reader's Digest. That year, he published his first book, A Matter of Accountability: The True Story of the Pueblo Affair (1970) to critical acclaim. While with Reader's Digest for the next thirty-two years, Armbrister became well known for covering corruption issues on Capitol Hill. However, in 1982 he also founded what would become Rebuilding Together, the largest charitable organization in the United States devoted to reconstructing tens of thousands of rundown homes for the poor. He served as the organization's national chair from 1988 to 1992. Meanwhile, Armbrister continued publishing books, including Act of Vengeance: The Yablonski Murders and Their Solution (1975), which was adapted as a 1986 Charles Bronson movie for television. Armbrister also ghost wrote the memoirs of Congressman Donald Riegle, titled O Congress (1972) and President Gerald Ford, titled A Time to Heal (1979). His last book,Speaker: Lessons from Forty Years of Coaching and Politics (2004), was also a political memoir.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Los Angeles Times, April 2, 2006, p. B15.

Washington Post, March 30, 2006, p. B7.