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“The wonderful thing about the workshop is that our dad continued the legacy of our mom, not with an award or a plaque, but with a living, breathing conference of writers, storytellers and funny people, willing to take the risk of putting pen to paper,” said son Matt Bombeck, a screenwriter from Los Angeles.
The gift will bring the workshop’s endowment to more than $500,000. The endowment was started in 2004 when University of Dayton alumnus Ralph Hamberg and his wife, Cindy, gave a $100,000 gift.
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“We’re touched by Bill’s generous spirit,” Teri Rizvi, founder and director of the writers workshop said in a prepared statement. “Over the years, he gently and consistently encouraged writers to find their own voice, not try to be the next Erma Bombeck.”
Bill Bombeck was born in Dayton in 1927 and graduated from Chaminade High School. He met his future wife while working as a copy boy for the Dayton Journal; Erma Bombeck was a copy girl for the Dayton Herald.
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Bill Bombeck spent 26 years as an educator before taking on the Bombeck family’s business affairs and several volunteer roles, according to UD. At the height of her popularity, 900 newspapers syndicated Erma Bombeck’s column to an audience of 30 million readers.
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